A Grim Tales Story: Isaac's Testament
by SpaghettiKills82
Summary: A broken man in a ruined world. He wanders it, alone. Scraping by, after the cataclysm of Megaville. Until one day, the Reaper approached him with a proposition; go down below and fight alongside him, or wait for the devil to return and finish the job. Chapter 9 up now!
1. Chapter 1: Amongst the aftermath

Alright, here's this fanfiction that I promised myself to post. I've been writing it for over a year and just started formatting it into a novel to the best of my ability. I'm a B graduate in English communications by the way. I love Bleedman's universe and I thought this character up one night and couldn't stop thinking about possible arcs and how he could fit into the main comic and it's current characters and canon. I have two more chapters just around the corner, so stay tuned. Sorry if it's a bit short, all criticism is welcome. Thank you for reading.

 **Chapter 1: Amongst the aftermath**

The sky was stained red with hellish clouds, and the ground with crimson mud. A mushroom cloud dissipated over the ocean horizon, and a man held a dying woman in his bloody arms, among the rubble and aftermath. Tears ran down his face as the life slowly died away in her. She pulled him in close with her weakening arms and whispered something into his ear, shortly before dying.

"Wait…wait WAIT! NO! WAKE UP! BLOSSOM! DON'T GO! BLOSSOM WAKE…! …wake up…please". He caressed her dead body in his raging sadness, but was interrupted by a bony arm, reaching for her. He grabbed it by the sleeve, looking up to see who it was. It was the Reaper, it came for her, and it was just as shocked as he was.

"You were waiting weren't you? Sitting on the sidelines, waiting for it to end, for them to die, so you could take them away!."

He tightened his grip angrily. The Reaper jerked his arm in panic.

"What is wrong with you!" he asked, "Can't you let me grieve first?"

The Reaper stuttered back in a Jamaican accent, "I-I am sorry for dis"

The reaper tapped him on the head with his scythe, and he fell into a deep sleep, and began to recollect a moment from his past in the form of a dream.

He dreamed of the pain, when the back of that cold hand smacked across his face with utmost anger and discipline.

"Do you have any idea how much I have sacrificed to keep you from doing shit like this!?" said the abuser "How much time i waste to keep you in check?!"

He punched the boy in the stomach with his other hand.

"OOOF!" the boy coughed, falling forward.

"You have no idea what you're capable of!" he shouted him "I've spent so long, conditioning you to not...!"

Suddenly a tall red headed woman in a lab coat opened the door and walked in. The shock on her face quickly turned to anger.

"What the hell? What…? What are you doing to him!? Stop!" she demanded.

Surprised, he replied "Wha...! What are you doing here!?" he winced "Listen, this isn't any of your business..."

Cringing, she interrupted "Of all the places you decided to beat your child you did it here?! On Underfist grounds?!"

"He's a danger! He doesn't understand anything but violence!"

"Look who's talking!" she said, clenching her fists, "If you don't stop i'll show you a little 'understanding' of my own!" taking a step forward.

"Don't you dare, girl!" his cyborg hand quickly transformed into a plasma blaster and he pointed it in her direction "You're treading on ground you can't possibly comprehend!"

"You're beating your own son!" she scowled angrily at him "You seriously think you can convince me to let you do this?!"

"Maybe not" he said "but this might." he drew his pistol from his belt and pressed the muzzle against the boy's head. "Now, back off."

Waking up felt like taking in a breath of air after drowning. He jolted back up, realigning himself with reality. He looked back at Blossom's body, lying in a pool of her blood, with her eyes wide open. He shuffled back up to her, placed her hands on her stomach, and closed her eye lids. He wiped his tears and stood up before scanning the area for that reaper.

He then yelled "Why did you show your face?! After all of this?! Why remind me of 'that' day?!"

He knelt to pick up her body until a blimp flew over, sounding an alarm and a message.

"Attention all citizens of Megaville: please find your way to east exit border of Megaville. You will be transported to Townsville via school bus or to the Townsville Hospital via Ambulance if needed"

His mind fought between burying Blossom, and helping the victims of this cataclysm. Pretty soon after, he realized the needs of the living outweighed the needs of the dead, and made his way to the evacuation area.

At the evacuation area, there were people in crowds, trying to make their way onto the buses. Some were bashed and bloody, being carried by other people, some were calling out for their missing families. A news reporter woman stood in front of the rubble that used to be Megaville with her camera crew, shouting over the noise of the crowd.

"Harry, I'm standing in front of the junior high school, and as you can see, like the rest of Megaville, it is in shambles." She said "After the Powerful and dark creature known as HIM devastated the city in a battle with the members of Under-fist before, mercilessly executing them!"

The camera pivoted around to face the crowd. "Here you can see the surviving people of the attack gather in their struggle to evacuate!"

Before she could describe it any further, an explosion erupted in the crowd, launching people through the air. People screamed as they tried their hardest to escape the blast. Shortly afterward, gunshots started and a firefight between police and the perpetrators began.

About ten minutes later, he arrived at the site, finding little survivors.

He walked through the carnage shouting to anyone still alive "Get to the buses! Everyone to the buses!"

The news reporter from earlier ran towards him clumsily, struggling in her high heels.

"H-help! They're coming!"

"What? Who?!" he called back.

Before she could reach him, a bullet shot through her head, spattering him with blood as she fell into his lap.

"Oh Jesus" he said in anguish.

Nearby, he heard the perpetrators. "Got em! Haha! You don't run from the Gang-Green Gang, bitch!" Shouted the green-skinned greaser leading his pack of degenerates. "Alright fellah! See that? We ain't no petty gang no more!"

The greaser made his way up to him. "I'm the boss round these parts now!" He placed the barrel to the man's head "Ain't that right boys?!"

His four lackeys responded gleefully. The short Mexican "Si Patrone!" The fat ginger "Dyaargh, Ya Boss!" The slender weasel "Yessssss!" And the disabled looking one "Plsplspslsplspsl!"

"See hotshot!? This is our street now!" the greaser gloated.

The veins in the man's head pulsed with anger. His index finger twitched, as did left eye lid.

"Count down from ten." he said to himself.

"Uhh, what wazzat?" the greaser asked.

"10...9..."

"Seriously? These are your last words?"

"8..."

"Okay fella! See what happens when you hit one!"

"7..."

The greaser cocked the hammer to his revolver.

"6..."

"Look at this freak!" he laughed to his comrades.

Quickly, the man grabbed the bottom of the handle and twisted the greaser's right hand upwards. With his free hand, he punched the underside of his elbow, dislocating it, and bending it unnaturally.

"Argh!" he yelled as the pistol fell out of his injured appendage. The man reached under and caught it, then proceeded to unload the gun into the greaser's stomach.

"5..."

"Noooo! I'm comin' Boss!" Shouted the large ginger gang member as he charged his boss's attacker. The man tossed the greaser and empty weapon aside as he proceeded slowly towards the oncoming enemy. The huge green beast raised his arms up to slam the man into the ground, but the man caught both arms before they could pulverize him. He gripped tightly onto the giant idiot's knuckles, squeezing them tighter and tighter.

"Arrrgh! Stop it!" cried the fat lummox, but his plea was too late as the man swung the giant over his head, slamming him into the ground behind him.

"uuuurgh" the giant mumbled as he tried to regain consciousness.

The man walked up to the giant green idiot and stomped his head with his boot, making a fatal cracking noise.

"4..."

"Senior Billy!" cried the foot stool high, Mexican gang member as he pulled out a switch blade and leaped high in the air towards the man.

"I cut you!" he cried.

The man caught the little green man mid-air. A slight press with his thumb and a flick to the side, the little green man's neck snapped easily.

"3..."

He dropped the small body to find that the slender and feminine gang member holding an even bigger knife bolting at him, quickly making his way over. The slender scum began to swipe at the man, missing every time as the man dodged and side stepped out of the way of each attack.

"I'm gonna ssssslit your throat!" he hissed.

The attacker finally lunged a direct attack to the man's temple, but he caught it before it could land. No matter how hard he pushed, the man didn't react to any force, and began to turn the knife towards the wielder, twisting the wrist unnaturally doing so.

"Arrrrgh! Ssssstop!" he begged.

Slowly the man pushed the knife closer and closer towards his attacker despite all resistance, and plunged it into his eye.

"2..."

Not long after, the man realized he was being fired at by the member with the wondering eyes and speech impediment.

"Plspslspslsp!" he shouted with his tongue.

Each shot missed gloriously as the gang member fired the pistol sideways and arm's length above his head. The man began to approach him with confidence that he would not get hit and pulled out his retractable shield as he got closer. Within meters of approach, the bullets started to pang off of the shield, and shortly afterwards the gun went dry. The man bashed the assailant with the edge of his shield, forcing him to stumble backwards and spin around to catch himself from hitting the ground. To his dismay, the last gang member found the curb in front of his face.

"1" he said before booting his head into the curb, almost splitting his skull through the middle.

"So much for that exercise, Doc."

The dust settled, and the sound of disoriented footsteps caught his attention. The greaser from earlier was still walking, poorly none the less. He was trying to escape, pressing on the holes in his stomach, but the man quickly caught up to him, picking up the revolver on the way there. He spun the greaser around and placed his hands around his head.

"Argh! N-n-no! Let me go! Please!" he begged.

"You'll just bleed out" the man quietly replied, "I'll make it quick."

Without thinking, without hesitation, he broke the greaser's neck, and let his lifeless corpse fall to pavement.

He stood there amongst the death and aftermath, this time he welcomed it and rejected it no longer.

Later that day, on a hillside along the coast of Megaville, he finished burying the last of his fallen friends. He placed the half mummy, half vampire hero Irwin in a shoe box, as his last form was of a bat, next to a cross he placed for Raven, and a stone for Hoss. On the end of the three, there he buried Blossom, with a cross above her grave with the photo of her he kept in his wallet wedged in it. He opened his mouth feeling that he had to say something, knowing there was no one there to listen.

Still, he looked up to the sky and said "I know you're watching me, I know you can hear me, and I know that you hate me, for what I've done, and what I'm going to do. This is who I am, there's no denying it. I'll try and fix this, the only way I know how. I'm…" he sighed, "I'm sorry."


	2. Chapter 2: What he left in his wake

Hey guys, sorry i got a bit confused with how you add and update chapters. I have the hang of it now so if your reading this, chapter three will be up very shortly. In these next two chapters we explore the world now after HIM has ruined it essentially, and we go further into the shared cartoon universe. I hope you enjoy it! Thank you for reading.

Update: changed the conversation between Grim and Isaac.

 **Chapter 2: What he left in his wake**

A television news show reports on the scene of the attack at the evacuation area, there a reporter describes the unimaginable sight.

"I'm standing at the explosion site that killed many of the survivors of the Megaville attack, also where one of our reporters and a camera crew were shot dead in cold blood. The once harmless and now malicious Gang-green Gang have been the main suspects of this terrorism, yet their bodies were found amongst the hundreds they had killed. Who did this to them? And should we let this vigilante use this cruel method of justice in this time of need? We asked the Mayor of Townsville this question today at his press conference".

Cutting to the interview, the mayor stood on his overly tall pedestal to comment. "I think that we should let our…um…Miss Bellum?" he queued his secretary.

"Justice System, Mr Mayor" she updated him.

"Ah that's right! We should let our justice system deal with our criminals, no matter how twisted their actions! We are a democracy! We let our task force and the super heroes deal with the matter respectfully!"

The crowd looked puzzled, a reporter called out in response "but aren't all the heroes dead?!"

"What?! The mayor shouted "all the heroes are dead!? That's it! All criminals will be shot on sight! 5:00 pm curfew! Sentence of all crimes will be death!"

2 years later:

Its 11:00 pm. The Townsville town hall is surrounded by armed guards and razor wire fences, making the outside of the building look somewhat Stalin-esc. CCTV cameras watch every inch of the building's exterior, except at that particular point in time, they all switched off simultaneously. In the reception room on the very top floor, the mayor aggressively argued with his secretary whilst holding the hair of a local school teacher in front of his office.

"No miss Bellum!" He screamed "You will not go home! I don't pay you to sleep! I pay you to do as I fucking say!" as he pulled the woman by the hair into his office.

The teacher screamed "Miss Bellum! Please! Help me!"

"I'm-I'm sorry Miss Keen." she responded.

"Damn you!" Miss Keen shouted.

"And lock the door!" the Mayor shouted as he slammed the door to his office.

Miss Bellum sat down at her reception desk and pressed the lock button. She felt fatigued and humiliated, and noticed the glaring eyes of the mayor's armed guards at the room entrance.

"Aww!" the first guard sobbed sarcastically "she looks sad!"

"Maybe she's jealous of that thicc school teacher getting a piece of the mayor!" the second guard replied.

"Oh is she?! Don't worry babe! I'll keep ya company!".

Miss Bellum looked away from her harasser as he approached her, unbuckling his belt. Suddenly, they heard a struggle outside the front door. The sound of muffled Gunshots, screams and dropping bodies set the guards into a state of alert.

"Shit! The fuck is going on out there?" the second guard shouted.

"I don't know, pull your damn pants up and get ready!" the other replied.

Miss Bellum hid under the table to hide from her them and whatever was slaughtering the guards outside. The guards readied their trigger fingers and aimed right at the door. As a shadow from underneath the door came into view, the guards started firing into the doorway, hoping whoever was on the other side perished. When their guns went dry, the door crumbled to bits under the weight of the dead body that fell forward.

It was an already dead guard.

"What the fuck?" said the panted guard.

A man came out from around the doorway and entered the room. He wore camouflage pants, a bullet proof vest and a light grey trench coat.

He noticed the two scrambling for magazines on their person, then asked "Overkill?".

With that opportunity the man threw a knife at the guard with the loose belt, impaling him in the shoulder.

"Arrgh!" he shouted as he fell backwards.

The other pulled the empty mag out, but was interrupted by a swift fist to the jaw.

As he recovered from the hit, the guard looked up to see the man digging in his pockets, saying to himself "Dammit! Where is it?!"

The guard put a new mag in while the man was distracted, but couldn't pull the charge handle.

The man pulled out a custom revolver "There you are!" but was met with a gun butt batted across his head.

He didn't fall over however and quickly recovered, grabbed the barrel of the rifle, kicked the guard in the chest hard enough to launch him across the room into the wall. The man tossed the rifle aside and shot the guard in the head, just before the other guard got up and tackled him, sending him back a few feet. He tried to take the pistol from him, not before the man used his free hand to grab the guard by the throat and hold him up in the air, before slamming him into the ground.

"Uurrgh!" The guard shouted in pain.

The man put a bullet in his head, then took in a deep breath. He noticed the curly orange hair poking up from behind the reception desk. As he walked up to it, the head retreated under.

He knocked on the desk and said "It's okay Miss Bellum, I just need you to open the door".

Her arm protruded up from behind the desk and pointed across the room.

"Th-the mayor is b-busy at the moment, p-please take an n-number and a seat." she stammered.

He grew impatient and said "Miss Bellum, come out from under there please, I won't repeat myself".

She slowly crawled out from under the desk and sat in her chair, she was shivering in fear.

"Please don't hurt me!" she pleaded.

"I'm not here for that" he replied "I'm here for him. Now please open the door. I know there is an emergency unlock on your desk".

A tear ran down her chin as she pressed the lock release under her desk. The door made an unlatching noise.

"Thank you Miss Bellum" he said, making his way to the door.

"He wasn't always like this you know" Miss Bellum sobbed "He used to be a good man. A sweet, kind little man!"

He sighed and said "That man you once knew doesn't exist anymore. The world you once knew doesn't exist anymore. All the world leaders are divided, they're scared, bunkered up, pointing fingers, and on the brink of war after the collapse. With all the heroes dead there's no one to protect them, to guide them. The only heroes left are now villians. Men like him run the world, and there's only one way to deal with men like that. I'm sorry."

She broke into tears as he raised his leg up, kicked the door in and took aim at the Mayor.

"Stop right there you hooligan!" demanded the Mayor, holding a gun to a beaten and half naked Miss Keen. "I'll kill her if you try anything!"

The man easily shot the top of the Mayor's head off over Miss Keen's shoulder.

"Aaaaaiiiiee!" She screamed.

He exited the room, walked up to the window and made his way out. He climbed up the fire escape and made it up to the roof. Looking out over Townsville, listening to the sound of rattling fire escapes and police sirens, he said to himself "Well Isaac, you're in the big leagues now."

"Only up from here." Interrupted a deep Jamaican voice from behind him.

"Hey Reaper. Clean up duty?" he asked.

"Its my job to collect deh souls from all teh dead. Including your victims, Isaac." the Reaper replied.

"On that note. Did you know they were gonna die? Even before you knew i was going to kill them?"

"I know when everyone meets deir end."

"Right! So you know when people are gonna die. And instead of stopping certain, important people from dying, you let it play out, and 'collect'."

"Its not my position to decide who lives and dies."

"Yet you're always there!"

"We've had dis discussion before Isaac. Deh only reason I humor you is because of you're ability to see me."

"Why is that?" Isaac asked, "why am i plagued by your company?"

"Maybe try not killing people? I might not show up so often."

"I can't. You know a can't."

"Can't, or won't?"

Isaac kicked a brick out of the Building ledge in anger.

"CAN'T!" he shouted.

The reaper sighed, "Listen Isaac, I'm not here to argue, I'm here wit a proposition."

"I don't do jobs anymore, and i wouldn't do one for you."

"If you accept, you'll have teh best chance you'll ever get at finding closure."

Isaac looked puzzled, then asked "What do you mean?".

"Revenge. Dere's a war coming. My kingdom against HIM."

"You're kidding."

"Nope, and if you're up for it, you'll be on teh front line, teh perfect chance to avenge Blossom."

"Huh. There a catch?"

"Mah wife and I have made a contract for you to sign." Grim explained, "It states you'll have to stay in our quarters, obey our every command, and in return you'll be accommodated wit a room, meals and pay."

"In hell?"

"…yes, but you'll have mostly free roam. Though any insubordinate or violent behavior will be rewarded wit a burning pain in your very soul"

"You want me to sign my soul away to Death?" Isaac asked.

"Just taking precautions Isaac"

Isaac thought for a few seconds, then said "I've spent years trying to fix the world he ruined, what will killing him fix? If he's down there and not up here, then I think I'll take my chances with putting down the bastards running this place into the ground. Plus I prefer to not be subjected to intense periods of pain for doing whatever i want" he said.

Grim was disappointed by Isaac's decision.

"Well, deh offer stands Isaac. If you change your mind, you'll know how to find me."

"Don't I always, Reaper?"

The Reaper replied "Please, call me Grim…" then changed to a disgruntled tone "…for the fortieth time"

He tore a portal in space with his scythe, walked into it and disappeared.

"…fortieth?" Isaac asked himself "Jesus, I need a break."


	3. Chapter 3: Rotten to the core

Like i said, VERY shortly. This chapter gets really exciting, i'm pretty proud of it. Don't worry, the core plot kicks in around the next chapter. Leave a review or follow me if you would like to. Thank you for reading.

UPDATE: changed the interrogation scene.

 **Chapter 3: Rotten to the core**

After dispatching the tyrant of Townsville, Isaac took a stroll down the streets of a ghetto slum, lit with bon fires and flickering street lights. The residents scurried back into the darkness like cockroaches as he made his way down the street, thinking about Grim's offer.

"I do need the money." He thought "I'm running out of ammo and..." his stomach grumbled. "...ugh."

In a cracked television store window, a news report broadcasted some breaking news.

"Only hours ago, the mayor of Townsville was murdered in his office in the town hall along with many of his security staff." the news anchor reported "No security cameras were functional during the attack, making investigators suspect the attack was organised and skillfully perpetrated. Witnesses on the scene say they didn't see the perpetrator, saying 'he could be anyone'. The Mayor's assistant, Miss Sara Bellum, being the highest in authority and the only survivor has been chosen as the acting Mayor until, finally, a democratic election is organised"

"Thank God for that!" Isaac said to himself.

As he began to walk away from the window, he passed a normal looking middle class woman, who behaved like she was being overly careful. He thought nothing of it, until he passed a ragged, shady looking man who was most likely hopped up on something. He took a look over his shoulder to find that the man followed the woman into an alleyway.

"Ah, you're kidding me." he murmured, rolling his eyes.

He moved into that alley to find the man knocking her out, then binding her hands. Isaac bolted up to him and jump kicked him, sending him flying down to the other end of the alley. As he hit the ground, he turned his head toward him and hissed.

Isaac pulled his revolver and said "Don't get back up!".

"You're dead asshole!" the perp snarled.

Isaac approached him, noticing the glowing green fluid dripping down his chin.

"Necroplasm? You're a demon!"

The perp then sprung tentacles from his back and claws protruded from his fingers.

"Scraaaaw!" it roared.

It leaped at him ferociously, but Isaac plugged a shot into his shoulder, forcing him to come crashing to the ground.

"Aaaaahrrgh!" it squealed.

He kicked the demons head up, throwing him over onto his back.

"Where did you come from!?" he interrogated "Who let you out!?".

"I ain't tellin' you anythin'!"

Isaac drew his cross, pointing it at the demon.

"You think that scares me?!" it shouted.

Isaac flipped it open like a butterfly knife, and a long blade sprung from it.

"Surprise!" Isaac said before impaling the demon through the shoulder.

"Aaargh!" it shouted as his flesh sizzled at the swords touch.

"A...A God sword!? I thought only the samurai…"

"Yeah, one of a kind!" Isaac interrupted "Now answer!" and twisted the blade.

"Aaaaargh! Okay! Okay! I-I was part of an operation going down in Bellwood! Converting mortals into demons!"

"…where in Bellwood?!"

"I don't remember! I swear! Please, I've only been alive for a week!"

Isaac pulled the sword from his shoulder.

"Argh! Th-thank yo..."

Swiftly, Isaac beheaded the demon with a quick swipe. The blood spurting from his neck lit aflame like gasoline after touching the holy steel and sprayed across the wall. Isaac, took the woman to a nearby hospital, got on his motor bike and began his trip to Bellwood, to find and end this new demon threat.

Bellwood used to be a small town known for alien and UFO sightings, now it's a futuristic mega city crawling with all sorts of creatures and beings from all around the galaxy. With such high immigration, Bellwood naturally ran itself into the ground. The city was just as tall as it was wide, so Isaac had his work cut out for him this time around. He found a hotel room and patrolled the streets for about a week. As he patrolled on the Friday of that week, he passed through some grim and slimy backstreets, a place where no natural light dared go. Through some persuasion and inflicted violence, Isaac found a lead going through there. He felt that asking any of the 'people' on that street about any occurrences was about as useful as a pet rock, considering none of them spoke any languages from this planet. Passing an extremely smelly meat shop, a huge butcher tossed out some bum with scaly crab skin trying to steal some green meat, shouting some alien gibberish through his cuttlefish mouth that sounded something like

"Gisdan iblikash! Zudor! Zudor!"

The bum scuttled under some trash bin to feast on whatever he got his feelers on.

"Poverty didn't look this bad when they were just humans." Isaac thought.

He checked every alley way he passed, considering that's the place where trouble always is, but didn't find anything notable except a wanted poster for a guy dubbed "the Cereal Killer" with a C. Eventually he heard a noise from around the corner.

"Creeeeyaaaawwww!" followed by screams of fright.

He pulled out his revolver, now in its own holster this time, and investigated. To the left he saw aliens and a few humans fleeing from the scene, and to the right a sewer lid being pulled over a port hole. Isaac checked the lid before thinking of climbing down and found the key to his trail. Necroplasm, aka demon blood and their source of power.

Making his way through the sewer, Isaac found that human sewers were more pleasant than multi-species sewers. He followed the trail of necroplasm into a hole in the wall, finding a lump of black flesh with tentacles and teeth pulsating and squirming. It very slowly changed into a humanoid shape, then began to change its colour from greenish black to a pale skin colour, shifting into a scrawny, pale humanoid form.

It got up and said "Argh! Is this seriously our possession standards?" pinching at his frail skin "needle marks and mal-nourishment?"

Isaac revealed himself and pointed his weapon at the creature.

"The fuck are you?" he asked

"Human!" it shouted as it lunged towards Isaac.

Isaac simply kicked the demon into the sewer wall, shooting him in the shoulder.

"Argh! It burns!"

"That pain is a result of a little something i made called 'gelatin holy-water tip rounds'. Effective! Very painful. Now, i'm gonna give you five seconds to show me where you were possessed, and I might just let you go. Or not. Who knows?" he said jokingly.

"Oh come on!" It pleaded "They'll recycle me if I go back!"

"I can risk it" he cocked the hammer, "not repeating myself"

"Alright! Jeez!" he said before he formed black clothes around his skin.

Isaac cringed, "Bizarre".

Isaac had his gun to this demon for about an hour as it took him through multiple stories and public transport vehicles, eventually leading him to a huge empty complex building with a small door around the back of it.

"Alright, knock." Isaac told the demon as he leaned against the wall.

"Wait, just knock?"

"Well it's a door isn't it!? Knock!"

"Okay! Okay!"

"Do it!"

"I'm doing it!" it said as it knocked on the metal door.

The eye level peek hole slid open, revealing a pair of green glowing slit pupil eyes.

"What is it?!" the door man shouted.

"Uhh, I'm the escapee?"

"Wait, you just…came back?"

"Uhh…" looking at Isaac "…yes."

"Okay wait there." he said before sliding the peep hole shut.

The demon noticed Isaac fiddling with something, "what's that?"

"It's nothing, eyes forward!" Isaac commanded.

"Alright! Jeez!"

The peep hole opened up to reveal a new pair of eyes "yep! That's him. Let him in, and call back the search party!"

He opened the door to let the demon in, just before Isaac slapped a brick of C4 on his back, booted him inside, took cover then detonated it. The glass windows above blew out, raining glass on Isaac's head as he stormed the building, pistol in his right hand, sword in his left.

He glided through their numbers, disemboweling any demon in his wake. Making his way down each floor and clearing them out.

Earlier, in the basement of the building, two demon thugs pulled a screaming and kicking little girl from a room, locking it behind themselves. They dragged her all the way to a restraining table, tying her down as she fought back. When she was finally restrained, she looked up, silencing her screams when she saw the massive, warping mound of black flesh dangling from the ceiling. It was completely covered in eyes, all moving independently. One of the thugs climbed up the scaffolding placed around the eye beast, then reached out and grabbed an eye. It squealed as he ripped it from its socket. The little girl was in a state of complete catatonic shock, unable to take her eyes off him as he walked over with this wriggling eye in his grasp. The other demon held her head down as he brought a scalpel into her field of vision.

She began to scream again, shouting "PLEASE! DON'T! PLEASE STOP!".

"You'll thank us later little one! hehehe!"

Suddenly, the ceiling and walls rattled as a loud BOOM blasted upstairs.

"The hell was that?!" said the demon with the scalpel.

"Sounds like we're under attack! Let's get up there!"

"Alright!" he replied, placing the scalpel on the table next to them, "You stay right here Girly!".

They both made their way to the door, before it flew open with Isaac on the other side, shortly before he blew the top of their heads off.

He reloaded his pistol as he walked over to the table, staring at the beast on the ceiling. All its eyes looked at him simultaneously, the pupils quivering in fear.

He said "No way there's a God if that exists".

"HELP!" shouted the girl, "UNTIE ME! PLEASE!".

"Oh shit!" Isaac shouted, running over to the table then unstrapping her.

She leaped onto him and hugged him tightly.

"I was so scared!" she cried.

"Its...its okay now. You're okay."

"Th-there are more people in that room!" she said pointing at the door down the other end of the room.

"Okay. I'll free them, but i have to do something first. Stay here."

"O-okay" she said, drying her tears.

He made his way down some more stairs, then found a door with the word "BOSS" poorly written on it. He kicked the door in, only to be met with a storm of heavy machine gun fire, unloading into the space of the door way. He pulled his bullet proof cloak over himself and ran inside, deflecting every round that hit him. As he reached the desk with the MG mounted on it, he kicked the desk up, throwing the machine gun into the air. He leaped over the desk and speared his sword at the shooter, going straight through his chest and out his back, pinning him to the wall behind him. Fiery liquid poured from the wound in his chest as Isaac walked up to him and firmly gripped the sword handle. He pushed the sword up slightly, parting its flesh even further as it slowly bled out.

"Argh!" it moaned.

"Who set up this operation?" Isaac demanded

"Nothing you do will be as bad as what he'll do too me!"

"Fine, i like a challenge!" he continued to lever the sword upward, splitting his chest and rib cage up the middle and toward his throat.

"ARGH! AAAARGH!" he screamed "AAARGH! OKAY! OKAY! HIM! ITS HIM!" HE'S...he's got operations like this across the globe, in every country! So when he wins the war against the Queen Bitch, he'll have an army waiting to fight by his side when he comes back to finish the job! That's all i know!"

Goosebumps traveled up Isaac's back as he heard what the demon said.

"He's not finished with us." he whispered in realization.

"I'm already dead for telling you that!" the demon shouted "Just kill me!"

Isaac thought for a moment, "No" he replied.

"What! No, please!"

"But before that..." he instructed the demon "...you're gonna send him a message. If he fucks with my world again, he's fucking with me! And he doesn't want to fuck with me." Isaac ripped the sword from the demon's chest, necroplasm pouring from his wound.

"Gaaargh!" he gurgled as he fell to the floor.

"Got it?!"

"Uh...I..." the demon stuttered.

"And if i see you on my world again..." assured Isaac "...i'll make you wish you burned in hell."

"OKAY!" he shouted "I'll go back!"

Isaac kicked the demon in the head, hard enough to knock him out.

He went back up stairs and freed the remaining people. The last hostage however looked strangely familiar.

"Hold up" he said, stopping the man from leaving the room.

"What are you doing? Let me go!"

"…you're that "Cereal Killer" guy."

"…I…All I wanted was some Lucky Captain Rabbit King Nuggets!"

"Of course you did" he said before booting him back inside and locking the door again.

"WAIT!" he shouted from behind the door, "LET ME OUT! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

"Making a call" he replied before he threw a brick of c4 on the demon, and on all the structural supports for the building on the way out.

After Isaac and the people left the building, he pulled out the detonator and flicked the switch.

KABOOM!

The building went up in a spectacular explosion. Isaac waited patiently in front of the blazing structure for about five seconds before Grim arrived.

"You called?" Grim asked.

"Yep, and I've made a decision."

"Hmm?"

"I thought I could ignore him, thought I could just focus on fixing what he ruined, but he was rotting it from the inside out this whole time, right under my nose."

"…So?"

"There's only one way to deal with this. To kill a cancer, you have to cut it out at the source."

UPDATE:

Thanks for reading guys! We've reached 104 readers now! I'm glad that so many people are interested enough to read onto the next chapter, but i am sad to tell you guys that i will be busy for the coming months. I was accepted into university to study game development, which is high priority to me as a content creator. We might get two or three chapters this year, depending on my free time, and i don't know how much of my free time i'll use for this. I'm sorry if you were using this to tide your thirst for story in between Bleedman's page uploads, that might not be the case now. Another problem i'm having is that not allot of you guys are writing any reviews, like at all. Out of the 104 readers we've had ONE review, a positive one, but one none the less. I don't want to pressure you guys but this is a learning experience for me, and to learn i need criticism, or at least a little feedback. I hope you understand. Who knows, maybe i could make this into a free unity game one day! #BleednSpaghettiGame? We can dream. Hey how bout that Samurai Jack season 5 trailer ey?! Pretty sweet right?


	4. Chapter 4: He'll do

Hey guys! Sorry for not uploading last year. First year of Uni really kicked my ass. I have no clue how people can make content and have an education simultaneously. I've downgraded to part time and not full time, so when school and work aren't giving me a hard time, I'll try to get these out for you to read. I've updated the previous chapters with more realistic dialogue and moments, and they're a lot less cringe. I'm more proud of them now so a recommend you read through them again before reading this. Remember to favorite, follow and review. Thank you for reading.

 **Chapter 4: He'll do**

Dark and desolate, the red clouds flowed like a river of blood, blotting out all the light that touched the horizon, just the way she liked it. The underworld, her playground, her property, her kingdom. She stood in her courtyard, adoring her accomplishment.

"Isn't it beautiful Pain?" she asked her servant.

"Umm, Mistress Mandy? Are you alright?" he replied.

"I'm killing time Pain, humour me."

"Oh! Umm, alright! Yes, it is quite a spectacle."

"And it's all mine. All the living things out there are at my mercy. Powerful men have bowed before me. Though some have rejected my allegiance, and instead have taken up arms against me."

"You refer to HIM, Milady?"

"My history with HIM appears to be outweighed by this 'warrior' Grim has promised me. When he sends his armies to kill me and my family, he will know the true definition of consequence" she stated begrudgingly.

"I'm sure he will, Mistress Mandy"

Before their conversation could continue any further, a swirling portal opened up in front of them. They moved out of the way to allow passage. First emerged the Grim Reaper.

"Hello m'dear." said Grim

"Where is he bonehead?" sounding disgruntled "You've made me wait longer than I am comfortable with"

He moved out of the way of the portal, "Are you ever happy wit anyting?" he asked rhetorically.

All of a sudden Isaac fell out of the portal onto his hands and knees, then proceeded to vomit.

"Ooooooargh!" he convulsed.

"Nice" Mandy said sarcastically

"Mandy, Pain, dis is Isaac" Grim introduced

Isaac hacked and coughed as he got back up, "Sorry. Ahem! First time teleporting."

"Isaac, dis is mah wife Mandy, and our servant Lord Pain"

Isaac stood up and made a little wave "Hey, nice to…" but as he got a better look at her, he changed his light wave into a light bow, "…VERY nice to meet you, Milady"

She paused in awe of how pathetic his introduction was, "Pleasure" she said sarcastically

"A pleasure meeting you, Master Isaac!" said Pain.

"Oh! Hey." he replied somewhat energetically, still looking at Mandy.

In the silent awkwardness of Isaac's continuous perving, Grim suggested "Uhh, hey! Let's start de tour, shall we?!"

Isaac ripped his eyes from the goods for a second to look up to Castle Grimskull, and found that it looked something right out of a gothic art book.

In awe of its massiveness, he asked "How long will that take, exactly?"

"Oh don't fret Master Isaac!" said Pain "It looks much bigger on the outside!"

On their way through the main hall, Isaac kept his hand firmly on his cross. Being his first time in the underworld, he was careful not to run into anything he might have sent back there. He noticed the large amount of skeleton guards, somehow supporting the weight of themselves and their armour without any muscles. The house however was exquisite, beautiful red carpets that stretched all the way down corridors and red drapes that reached up to the twenty meter high ceiling. Cobble stone walls lined with paintings, giant stone pillars, portraits and the occasional knight statue standing guard in front. All quite great but somehow depressing at the same time.

The kitchen, or more appropriately kitchens, was larger than any restaurant kitchen Isaac had ever seen with many chefs of different Lovecraftian forms busy preparing the Reaper family's next meal. They seemed to be preparing a crab dish.

"I'm allergic to crustacean by the way" said Isaac

"Allergic? Hold on…" Mandy asked before turning to her staff "Is that crab you're cooking?!"

"Yes mistress." Replied the sous-chef

"Well start over!" she sternly requested "New menu!"

"Right away Mistress!" then turned to the kitchen and called out "start over guys!"

The kitchen erupted in remarks such as "aww your kidding!", "this 'is' hell!" and "I work minimum wage for this?!"

One chef looked right at Isaac menacingly before breaking a crab shell in half with his claws.

"Uhh, sorry" Isaac said under his breath.

"Speaking of which…" announced Pain "…the head chef must join his crew!" putting on his apron then heading into the kitchen.

Thinking he needed to escape the hateful gaze of the kitchen staff, Isaac hurried his pace, but caught the smell of something else he disliked, demon. The kitchen door flapped open, revealing a skeleton child wearing a hoodie with a tentacle protruding from its back, holding a plate of baked sweets. As Isaac met eyes with the one eyed skeleton/demon, he pulled the cross from his belt and held it towards the creature. The tentacle on its back hissed and retreated behind the child.

"H-hey! What's the deal?!" the child questioned.

"No need Isaac" said Grim "this is our son, Grim Jr"

Isaac paused "…son?"

"Don't be rude Jr, say hello to our guest!" Mandy instructed.

"Jeez! Okay!" Jr replied "Hey, 'Isaac'."

"If that thing on your back so much as looks at me I'll burn it." he replied

"Well…" said Jr "…nice to meet you too"

Isaac looked to Mandy and asked "so, you're a demon?" tightly gripping his cross.

Mandy raised her eyebrow at him, sighed then said "No, I'm human. From Endsville actually."

"Huh!" Isaac responded "so was I!" then holstered his cross.

"The staff need to use those ovens Jr." Grim told his son "You can't go making muffins all day."

"Just so you can feed your 'pet'." Mandy added.

"She's not a pet!" he shouted "she's a person! God!" then stormed down the hall with his tray of confectionaries.

The tentacle on his back formed into the shape of a hand and flipped off Isaac.

Isaac saw this, "Did you see that?!".

"Don't mind him" Grim told Isaac.

"Has to be a phase" Mandy said.

"Girls and such" Grim added.

"You heard what happened between him and Minnie?" Mandy asked Grim

"Regrettably" Grim replied "we'll have to talk to him aboot dat"

"Is Minnie this pet?" asked Isaac.

"No" Grim Replied "she's our daughter. Minnie is short for Mini Mandy"

"Mini Mandy and Grim Jr?" Isaac snickered.

"You got a problem with our children's names Isaac?" Mandy replied.

"No!" he chuckled "not at all."

"I suppose we'll move on den!" Grim interrupted "deh next stop is the back yard."

The three exited out a large wooden door, similar to the front door, and Isaac found himself in somewhere more like a training ground, workout space and a firing range than a yard. Though it was surrounded by a lovely garden. Skeleton soldiers fought each other with their standard spears, swords and shields with no remorse, dismembering each other, then putting themselves back together again just to continue fighting.

"Any training you're willing to subject yourself to is available here" Grim told Isaac

"Oh I like this" he replied

"You can come here anytime you like" Grim added "we'll be able to see you from deh balcony up dere" pointing to the third story balcony on the mansion wall.

"So you'll be watching me work out?"

"Don't flatter yourself." Mandy replied "speaking of which, you haven't signed that contract yet have you?"

"No, not yet."

"Well then, I wanted to take this opportunity to test you myself."

"Pardon?"

"Mandy!" Grim interrupted.

"Hold on!" Isaac interrupted "What do you mean by that?"

"Well, I heard you were bounty hunter at a point in your career."

"Your point?"

"My point is, so was I"

"Well!" Isaac said enthusiastically.

"And I understand what is required of anyone who might be one. So without some pesky contract burning your soul every time you swing at me, let's have a brief sparring session shall we?"

"Mandy, I strongly advise against dis" Grim recommended.

"Actually I see where she's coming from!" then faced Mandy again, "No weapons right?"

"No weapons!" she replied.

"Well then!" he took off his white coat and dropped it.

It hit the ground with a thud, revealing his black Kevlar vest and battle scarred bare arms. He unhooked his holstered cross on his belt and tossed it as they made their way to a clear arena to fight in, with unbroken eye contact.

"Oh boy, dis isn't goin to end well" Grim muttered in anguish.

They moved towards each other without breaking into a sprint and stopped merely a meter and a half away from one another. Mandy made the first attack, performing three high kicks at the left of the head, Isaac dodging two of them. He caught the third kick with his left hand, pulled her in, and then landed a right hook to the face. She stumbled back a few feet before turning her head toward him.

She said "Alright!" somewhat surprised.

"Footing 'is' important" he commented.

She charged him and threw a flurry of jabs at him, though he dodged a good number of them only taking a hit to his cheek and left rib. He caught her final hit however, then wrapped his arm around hers, lifted her up by the shoulder and over himself to slam her into the ground, twisting her wrist to force her to submit. She on the other hand wrapped her ankles around his neck and judo flipped him over, then twisted his wrist while stretching his arm.

"Argh! Okay! I admit, other things are important too!" he added "But…!"

Isaac rolled over, Mandy still holding on, and slammed her into the ground.

"Aargh!" she yelled.

She let go so she could reorient herself and find her footing.

"You're a bit unnaturally strong" she commented.

"I'm the strongest you've fought?" he asked, getting up off the ground.

"Focus on the fight!" she instructed.

"All my life, lady."

Isaac performed two jabs and a right hook. She dodged the two jabs and prepared to counter the hook, but it was a fake out. He instead grappled her right shoulder and head-butted her. While she was disoriented, he grabbed her by the throat and slammed her into the ground. He liked that move.

"I like that move!" he commented.

Her expression became furious in response to his cockiness. She folded her legs and pressed onto the ground with her arms.

"RrrrrrrrARGH!" she shouted as she sprung off of the ground, landing her feet onto his chest.

It didn't knock him over however, though it did cause him to skid backward about a meter. Her feet still firmly planted on his chest, she kicked him in the teeth and then kicked off of him, performing a backflip and landing on the ground. He shook his head and spat out some blood. Before putting up his fists, ready to continue.

"I think…I think I remember you!" he said "You're The Bitch Bounty Hunter!"

"My reputation proceeds me!"

"Oh really?" he called out "Like that punisher rip-off getup you rocked? Not to mention that your body count score was easy for me to beat!"

"What?!" she shouted "I killed hundreds!"

"I killed thousands!" he replied.

"Mother FUCKER!" she shouted before charging at him.

They sparred for another 10 minutes, and within that time they seemed to have gained a crowd. All the skeleton soldiers had realized what was going on and stopped their training to watch these two warriors duke it out. Mandy's quick flexible and acrobatic combat style was matched to Isaac's slower brute force strength. It was truly mesmerizing to witness. It was a constant stalemate of elegance and strength. After beating each other senseless for ages, eventually they stopped. They seemed to have just stopped moving and lowered their guard, panting and sweating. Through this they seemed to have physically communicated that the fight was over, and they made their way back inside.

As Isaac passed Grim he patted him on the shoulder and said "Good pick!"

As Mandy passed, she told Grim "He needs work, but he'll do."


	5. Chapter 5: What's it to you?

Hey! We've gotten up to 423 readers, spanning across all chapters. I appreciate that so many people from around the world are taking time to read my stuff. Thank you! This is my first chapter that doesn't include an action scene, so if you didn't like those parts of the story, lucky you! Just a heads up, I WILL NOT be doing requests for fanfiction ideas. I'm only doing this story and anything else that I'm passionate about. Sorry.

Here we see a little more about Isaac's lineage. I would like to see you guys guess what family he's from! You probably already know by now but let's make a game of it anyway! Type it in the review box! Remember to follow, favourite and please, review. Thank you for reading!

 **Chapter 5: What's it to you?**

Somewhere located in the deepest and darkest places of the underworld, is a towering, mountainous structure surrounded by burning magma and the suffering screams of the damned. The thick stench of copper and ash poisoned the air. A symphony of fire and death played here the loudest out of all the places in the underworld. It was a fortress to instil fear in anyone that dared go there, and what better a fortress for none other than the dark lord himself, HIM.

Inside are hundreds maybe thousands of rows of dark demon soldiers practicing their attacks and formations, readying for the war against the Bitch Queen and her skeleton armies. The commander oversaw his work in the making first hand, as he had worked long and hard to make sure that these soldiers would become the largest most deadly army the underworld has ever seen. From behind him, approached the sound of expensive leather shoes tapping against the stone floor.

"Looking good, commander!" a voice from behind complemented.

"My lord!" he bowed "Yes! I have shaped these soldiers into the perfect army, completely at your disposal!"

"That's good to hear!" HIM replied "but I was speaking of your uniform! Quite dashing I have to say!"

"Uhh, thank you my lord" he stood back up, slightly embarrassed "I had it pressed yesterday"

"Good to know you're prepared! Now, I was told an agent from the mortal realm was here to meet me?"

"Yes, my lord." He turned to face the door to the far right of the grounds "bring him out!" he shouted.

Two guards exited the door way with an injured demon in human form between them. They brought him over holding him up by his shoulders as he was too beat up to walk fast enough. They stopped before them and knelt, quickly letting go of the demon and leaving him as they left.

"So, you're in charge of the Bellwood station I believe!" HIM said "What's the news? Good things I hope!"

"Umm…" stalled the demon "there's been a…a complication with the Bellwood station"

"A complication you say?" HIM asked "well, let's hear it!"

"You see, uhh, it's been completely destroyed."

HIM stood there in silence, processing what he had just heard.

"You're serious?" he asked in a disappointed tone.

"I thought the stations were undetectable!" added the commander, "who could have done this!?"

"It was a warrior!" he answered "a man! He was armed to the brim with explosives, fire power, he was damned bullet proof!"

HIM quickly keeled over, his nose nearly touching the demon's, and stared into his eyes angrily.

"Are you telling me that ONE GUY…!" he shouted, "…DESTROYED YOUR ENTIRE FACILITY!?"

The demon looked at the ground in fear "Y-YES! I SWEAR! He was too powerful! Too strong! He killed all my men!"

HIM then looked at the demon's shirt, noticing it was ripped from the chest up to the throat. Under it was a large scar.

"A scar?" HIM said as he pinched the rip and moved it aside to have a better look, "Demons can't get scars! You regenerate!"

"That's it my lord!" the demon said "He was wielding a God sword!"

HIM let go of the shirt, and his expression of anger turned to pure shock.

"Impossible" said HIM.

"It's unlikely, my lord, but not impossible that swords other than the samurai's exist. That is saying 'if' it is not the same sword" informed the commander.

"No…" HIM replied, "The Queen Bitch has the samurai's sword." He stroked his goatee with his metallic crab claw hand, "So it must be another."

HIM looked at the ground and pondered, still inches from the demons face.

HIM asked menacingly "What was his name?"

"He didn't give me one." answered the demon "only a message."

"What did he say?"

"Umm…" he began to stall again.

"TELL ME EXACTLY WHAT HE SAID!" HIM shouted.

"Ahh! He-he told me to say 'don't fuck with my world again, or you're fucking with me, and you don't wanna fuck with m-AARRGHL!"

HIM had plunged his pincer through the demons chest and pilfered his heart out his back, then crushed it in his sharp metal claw.

"Ew" said the commander.

HIM ripped his arm free from the corpse, stood back up and flicked off the necroplasm, absorbing what was left on his blood red skin.

"Send word to all the facilities in the mortal realm that a saboteur is onto our operation." He ordered the commander, "We cannot allow the humans to find out or prepare for my attack."

"I'll get right on that my lord"

"And someone clean this shit up!"

At castle Grimskull, the Reaper family and Isaac prepared themselves for their delayed evening dinner. Isaac and Mandy still recovering from their fight, slumped into their chairs at the dinner table panting and holding their bruised bodies. Isaac sat on the longer left side of the rectangular table in the middle seat, Mandy sat on the opposite side at the corner with Grim sitting on the end beside her.

Breaking the ice, Isaac asked "Okay, so where's dinner?"

"We'll wait for the kids, if you don't mind" Mandy answered.

Isaac rolled his eyes and muttered "sorry I asked"

Grim Jr arrived and took the seat across the table from his mother.

"Saw you two having a tussle in the yard before!" Grim Jr said "You would have to be a pretty good fighter if you can beat my Mom, Isaac!"

"Nobody beat anyone, Jr!" said Mandy "we were tired and we mutually agreed to finish it another time, right Isaac?"

"Well I don't…" Isaac was interrupted by the menacing glare that Mandy gave him "…uh, yeah, sure."

The tentacle that was attached to the skeleton boy was giving him a less threatening glare, but still as threatening as it could attempt. As Isaac noticed this, he pulled his coat around his back to reveal the cross on his belt, causing the tentacle to recede back into the boy's hoodie.

"What the…? Hey!" the boy shouted as he noticed this, "Stop doing that to him!"

"If you bothered to control that thing I wouldn't have to pull this out all the time." Isaac replied.

"You know what?" the boy asked "I was starting to think you were cool, but now, not so much"

Isaac physically recoiled to the boy's statement.

"Yeah that's right!" the boy said "you're not all that!"

"Oh no, you misunderstand." Replied Isaac "I was just surprised that you even thought I gave a shit."

Jr fell silent to his remark, then looked down at the table, feeling sight shame.

"Language at deh table, Isaac." Grim intervened.

Isaac put his hands up and said "sorry" then lowered them again.

"What the fuck is taking Mini so long?" Mandy asked.

Isaac pretended to gasp silently, then pointed at Mandy while looking at Grim. Grim replied with a stare of pure annoyance. Mandy was too busy looking down the hall at Minnie's bedroom door to notice.

"Oh for God's sakes, MINNIE!" yelled Mandy "GET YOUR ASS TO THE DINNER TABLE NOW!"

The sound of disgruntled stomping feet erupted shortly after Mandy's call, then Minnie's bedroom door flew open and slammed against the wall.

"I am coming moth'r!" shouted the one eyed, blonde Frankenstein looking little girl.

She stormed down the hallway toward the table. As she passed Isaac she stopped to look at him. Isaac pulled his chair out from under him to see who this moody little girl was. Minnie's tantrum paused, and Isaac's smirk turned into a frown.

Through Isaac's eyes, her skin looked like a black void, devouring the light around her. In the space of her head were two angled green glowing half circles, which he assumed were her eyes. It also contained a wide smiling mouth filled with razor sharp teeth, and a green aura hovered around her silhouette. She stank of ectoplasm, the worst he had ever smelled.

To Minnie, Isaac's skin looked as if it was on fire. Flames spewed from his gaping eyes, as if windows into his burning soul. The shadow he cast onto the floor was a perfect silhouette, but unlike him, it had a pair of large feathered wings.

Grim and Mandy looked at each other in confusion over what was happening between their daughter and their guest.

"Uhh, Isaac dis is our daughter, Minnie. Minnie, dis is Isaac. He is our guest." Said Grim.

Minnie, still retaining eye contact with Isaac, curtsied and said "Prithee to meet thee, Mr Isaac"

"Uhh, w-what?" he replied

"Apologies, mine own vocabulary is from anoth'r timeth. I desire t doest not both'r thee."

"Umm…" Isaac shook his head lightly, "No?"

"Excellent. Anon if 't be true thee shall excuses me." She then made her way to the seat on the other end of the table, the furthest away from everyone.

Isaac watched as she made her way to the seat, and sat.

"Finally." Mandy muttered "PAIN! BRING IT OUT!"

"As you wish Milady!" Pain called from the kitchen.

Pain exited the kitchen holding a covered metal pan in his right hand. Other skeleton servants followed behind him holding similar pans. They all circled the table, placing the pans in front of everyone. Pain had Isaac's meal, and unveiled it before his eyes. A fat porterhouse T-bone steak with potatoes and vegetables.

"Bon appetit!" said Pain.

"Oh! Wow!" Isaac gasped "this looks really good!"

"I hope you enjoy it Master Isaac!" Pain replied.

Everyone immediately dug into their meals without hesitation. Isaac took that first cut into the steak. The knife glided through it like butter. He Inspected the piece to find it was medium to well done.

"Beautiful" he said to himself.

He placed the chunk in his mouth and began to chew.

"Oh god!" he said

"What seems to be the issue Mr Isaac?" asked Pain.

"It's…" a tear rolled down his cheek "It's so good! I've been eating diner food for years. Finally, some real food."

"I'm glad you like it Mr Isaac." said Pain before leaving the table and entering the kitchen once again.

"So, how do you two eat?" Isaac asked as he pointed at Grim and Jr with his knife.

Jr replied first, saying "I chew, my pal here does the digesting"

Grim answered with "I keep a sack in my chest cavity"

Isaac smiled and nodded "that's pretty gross Grim. Thanks for sharing that."

"Hey, you asked" Grim replied, forking a lettuce leaf into his bony jaw.

Isaac kept eating, but soon swallowed what he was chewing as a new question had entered his mind.

"So uhh, how did 'this' happen?" pointing his knife at Jr, Grim and Mandy.

Grim choked on his salad after hearing what he asked.

Jr replied with "what do you mean?"

The tentacle whispered something in Jr's ear hole.

"What?" Jr responded "Ah! Gross!"

Without taking her attention away from her meal, Mandy replied with "Abortion".

Isaac, looking puzzled, said "I…still don't get it."

Minnie, who seemed quite repulsed by Isaac's etiquette, placed her cutlery on the table and asked "At which hour shall thee beest leaving, Mr Isaac?"

"Minnie!" shouted Mandy.

"Tis a valid question m'dear" Grim told Mandy, "Minnie, Isaac will be staying wit us indefinitely."

"Indefinitely!?" Minnie replied.

"Or until further notice"

"This is an outrage!" she yelled "His presence shall leadeth to our destruction!"

"Minnie!" Mandy shouted "Shut up and eat your dinner!"

"Listen kid" Isaac said to Minnie "I don't like this anymore than you do. If there was any other way, I would have taken that instead. My interests don't involve you or your family. I'm here for this war, I'm here for that red, lobster claw son of a bitch, HIM, and that's it."

Minnie stood up out of her chair, "oh I doubteth that not! But thou art a beacon yond shall leadeth the armies of fire to raineth down upon us!"

Mandy looked at Isaac and asked "What does she mean?"

"I honestly have no clue" he replied.

"Can thee not seeth?" she shouted at her parents.

"Minnie!" Grim shouted "You are way out of line!"

"So thee doth knoweth, fath'r, but what of moth'r?!"

Mandy stood up and slammed her hands on the table in frustration "GRIM! WHAT DOES SHE MEAN?!"

"Uhh, how may I put dis?" he said as he tapped his chin.

"MOTHER, HE IS OF HOLY DESCENT!" Minnie shouted.

Mandy looked at Isaac, eyes wide open in shock over what she just heard, then yelled "WWWWHAT!?"

Isaac slumped back into his chair and placed his hands in his lap, "So?" he replied, "What's it to you?"


	6. Chapter 6: Own up

Hey guys. Sorry for the wait. There's more going on for me during this break than I thought there would be. Again, I changed the dream sequence in chapter one because I'm terrible at storytelling and also at planning ahead :). I am trying to get better. Just pretend that you're reading CH1 for the first time. I became very curious toward recent performance for chapter 5 around the 22nd. I got a HUGE spike in Italian readers. About 84 readers from Italy. If you're a new Italian reader, I would like to know what brought you to my story! Let me know through reviews or DMs. Please remember to follow, favorite and review. Thanks for reading.

UPDATE: 666 VIEWS! But only 2 reviews? Come on guys. I see plenty of other Fanfics get at least a handful. I would honestly love to hear your thoughts. And if your a new Italian reader, tell me how you found the story!

Update: Grim doesn't ask Isaac about his decision.

 **Chapter 6: Own up**

The expansive dining room fell quiet, quite awkwardly quiet. Even the faint clanking of the dishes, pots and pans being cleaned from the kitchen a room over had ceased. The only noise emitted from the predicament, between the reaper family and Isaac at the dining table, would have to be the booming suspense towards how Mandy was going to respond to Isaac's remark. Isaac fell confused. He looked around the room and witnessed the anticipation on everyone's faces.

He then faced Mandy again, who looked as if her head was going to nuclear detonate on her shoulders, and asked,

"So uhh, what's going on here?"

Mandy, who was staring at Isaac so angrily that you could see the veins in her head pulsating, replied with,

"WHAT'S IT TO ME?!"

"Yeah, 'cause it's none of your business."

"YOU BEING A DEMI GOD CHANGES EVERYTHING!" she shouted.

"Listen, I don't know anything about my lineage! All I know is how to kill."

"KILL WHAT EXACTLY?! ME?! MY FAMILY!?"

Sternly, he leaned in to reiterate "I'm here for my OWN reasons."

"He speaks deh truth m'dear" Grim added "I know him".

"That doesn't mean shit!" she replied angrily, "you just might have compromised everything we've built!"

"I concur!" Minnie added "our family has't become highly at risketh of annihilation no thanks to this rampallian in our home!"

"How did you even know aboot dis, girl?!" Grim demanded from Minnie.

"I…." she glanced over to Isaac, still wondering why the objects he was touching weren't catching alight, "…I has't seen his kind bef're"

"Hey. So have I." Jr added "he looks normal to me."

"Behold at that gent with thy demon's eye, thee blinking idiot!"

"Jeez! Fine!" Jr then closed his empty left eye hole and squinted at Isaac with his one real eye. In realization, Jr jolted back and shouted "Woh! Yeah he…he's freaky looking".

"You two go to your rooms!" Mandy told her children, still staring at Isaac.

Jr hopped off his chair and raised his hands up, "Yep, okay." then left for his bedroom.

"Nay mother!" shouted Minnie "I am parteth of this family and I shall voice mine own opinion in this matt'r!"

Mandy slammed her right hand down on the table, impatiently, before shouting "NOW!"

Minnie's mouth quivered in fear, then seconds later kicked the chair angrily out from under herself and, once again, stormed down the hallway. Mandy's eyes followed her until she reached her room then watched as she slammed the door behind herself in frustration.

"What's your excuse Grim?!" Mandy demanded.

"It doesn't matter at dis point now." he replied "once he signs dat contract, any doubts you have aboot him disappear. If he draws in your enemies from the holy kingdom, which you have surely made, he will defend us"

"That's 'IF' he signs Grim! IF! If he doesn't, he's a liability!"

"I didn't think you to be so anxious, Mandy." commented Isaac.

"How DARE YOU!"

"But you're right." He added "first, I need to see the terms."

Mandy snarled angrily, scraping out little coils of wood from the tabletop with her sharp finger nails. Grim pulled out a scroll of white paper from his cloak and placed it in front of Isaac. He picked it up and unravelled it, then began to read the finely printed words;

This contract will stay in effect until the war against Him and his armies has come to an end.

The signee must reside within the confines of Castle Grimskull at all times, unless instructed. The signee must do as they are instructed, by either Grim or Mandy, and complete their missions and tasks to the best of their ability, unless the mission/task at hand does not ultimately support the war effort. The signee must prevent any and all harm towards the Reaper family. The signee must not bring any harm or ill intent upon the Reaper family. Violating these rules will inflict severe pain upon the signee.

Bed, food, water, shelter and a salary of $200 an hour will be provided for the services of the signee. The signee will have free roam of Castle Grimskull at their leisure excluding areas that are restricted or fall under the confines of privacy, unless invited. Violating these rules will also cause pain.

Please write your full name here: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"If both of you can give orders, then who do i listen to?"

"You see..." Grim answered, "Mandy and I can give orders, but one does not have any more control dan deh other. We could only give an order dat we both agreed on."

"Elaborate?" Isaac asked.

"Well, for example, if I wanted you to assassinate a target, but Mandy wanted you to kill a bunch of targets, we would have to agree upon which targets were higher priority."

"Okay. So, why my full name?" asked Isaac.

"Dat way you can't fake or forge a signature. You put down your full, god given name."

"You can fake a name."

"But I know your name, Isaac" Grim assured.

"Oh yeah." He replied, "Right."

Mandy then held out her open palm and shouted "PEN!"

Quickly, Lord Pain rushed out of the kitchen holding a pen, clicked it, and then carefully placed it in Mandy's hand. She then threw it at Isaac, hitting him in the face and then falling into his lap.

He picked it up, then began to ponder. After a few seconds of thought, he said "I was brought here under the impression that I would have a chance at HIM, but this contract makes this arrangement out to be as some sort of long period, body guard, secret agent type of deal."

"Yes" Grim replied "Our intelligence has given us reason to believe dat deh invasion won't happen for a few months. We t'ought dat instead of hiring you at deh last minute, we would hire you to aid us up to dat point, in hopes of destabilizing deh enemy war effort, while aiding ours."

"And by aiding you, you mean killing for you?"

"Exactly" Mandy replied.

Grim then looked at Mandy, insinuating that perhaps she was too upfront in her response.

"Listen, I'm only here for HIM, and I don't have the faintest clue as to what your end goal for this war is. Whatever it is, it sounds way bigger than I thought, and I don't feel that it's going to end with HIM's head on a pike."

"And how does any of that concern you?" she asked.

He leaned in and tapped his chest "Because I want MY world to be left alone after all of this is over."

"What are you insinuating?"

"What do you think, lady?"

"I feel a great hostility here" Grim interrupted "maybe we should calm down a bit and…"

"You insignificant little prick!" she shouted "I've given you exactly what you wanted and you're skeptical?! You're getting paid for fuck's sake!"

"You're just as, maybe more powerful then HIM and his armies combined! How do I know that you're not any better than he is?!"

"ISAAC!" Grim interrupted "You are stretching dis way too much! We have no desire to rule deh mortal realm! Only to protect our rule here, dat's it."

Isaac sighed, then asked "And what if i didn't want to sign?"

"Then i'd kill you!" Mandy shouted as she reached under the table, pulled out a sub-machine pistol and aimed it at Isaac.

"Mandy!" Grim shouted.

"I've invited you into my home! Let you near my family! Given you meal! Shown you hospitality! And you've shown me nothing but hostility in return! You sign, or you die!"

"You don't want to do that Mandy" Isaac commented.

"There's nothing that would bring me more pleasure."

"You hold that gun with such confidence, like when you pull that trigger I'll just POOF! Disappear! But I guarantee, you'll miss, and miss, and I'll get closer, and closer, and when I reach you, there'll be nothing you can do to stop me from..."

Grim quickly drew his scythe and sliced the weapon in half, making clanking noises as the metal parts and springs fell to the table.

"You two are insufferable." Grim commented.

"My was expensive, Grim."

"Like you don't have hundreds more." Grim replied before telling Isaac "Isaac, I assure you, dis is deh best chance you have. You can trust me."

Isaac looked at Grim, looked to Mandy, looked down at the contract, then assured himself,

"It's just a few months."

He picked up the pen, placed the tip at the beginning of the dotted line and wrote 'Isaac Zachary McCail' then slid it over to Grim. He picked up the contract and read the name.

"That's his real name?" Mandy asked.

Grim raised his left brow and looked over to Isaac, then looked over to Mandy, handed her the paper and said,

"Seems to be"

Mandy took a deep breath, pinched her brow, exhaled then said "Good. Good. Pain?"

"Yes Milady?"

"Show him to his room."

"Of course"

"No matter." Grim intruded "I'll do dat myself."

"Ugh! Fine. Whatever." She said as she shooed them and left the table.

Grim left the table and Isaac followed him down to the end of the hallway and took a left. Just around the corner was a finely varnished wooden door. Grim pulled out his ring of keys, slowly flicking through them, and found the key that he needed to access the room. He unlocked it, opened the door and queued Isaac to enter.

After he entered the room, Isaac turned, leaned against the door frame and said "I've fought many beasts, but nothing as vicious as your wife." he said laughingly.

"Yes, I hope you can excuse my family's behavior tonight. Deh contract was an idea of mine dat I didn't take too seriously, but Mandy insisted dat I implement it."

"I guess I better memorize the rules then."

Grim scanned the corridor to the right, around the corner then said quietly "Yes, a fake last name will only take you so far Isaac. She cannot find out, or she will have your head."

"Don't worry, she doesn't come off as the type that would give something a second look."

"I wouldn't be so sure Isaac. Be. Carefol. I can only hold her back so far."

Isaac pondered, then faced Grim and nodded in agreement.

"There will be a briefing for your first assignment tomorrow morning. Make sure you're wide awake by eight 0'clock. And remember…" he poked at Isaac's chest "…I'm doing this out of my respect, and my sympathy for you. DO NOT squander it."

He sighed "Yeah. No problem"

Grim then turned and left, making his way around the corner as Isaac closed the door behind himself. The room was a fair size, plenty of space to move around the queen sized bed that was pressed up against the far center wall. It even had its own bathroom. He removed his light grey trench coat then hung it up on the coat rack that stood to the right of the door. He then sat in the chair sitting in front of the wooden work desk that was against the centre of the wall to the left of the door. He removed his gun belt, put it on the desk then drew the revolver from the holding pocket. He pushed the button on the left of the gun forward, allowing the rotary cylinder to swing out.

He quickly tapped the extractor rod on the front of the cylinder, popping the spent cartridges out the back. He then reached into the pocket on the gun belt and pulled out a long cleaning brush. He began to scrub out the eight cartridge chambers, but he was hit with a sudden feeling of drowsiness. He moved onto the next chamber, struggling to keep his eye lids open. Moving to the next chamber, but couldn't sit up straight. He looked over his shoulder and stared at the big soft bed that was begging to be caressed in his tired body.

Still, he moved onto the next chamber, then the next, and eventually his head fell to the hard wood table top, throwing him into that part of his mind that he hated to visit. His memories.

It was that room, with those two people, he could feel the bruises, and he could still hear their voices, shouting.

"Really?" she yelled "you're just going to kill your own child?"

"If I have to." he replied "it's not an easy decision, but as a parent, I wouldn't do it unless I thought it was absolutely necessary!"

"Are you kidding me?! That should never be an option!"

"How would you know? You don't have kids! All you have is that 'thing' growing inside you! No thanks to that DEVIL! My advice? Abort it! Now! It'll cause us nothing but trouble! By the time it grows empathy and compassion, it would have killed us all!"

"YOU IDIOT! You're supposed to teach them that! It doesn't just grow! What they 'are' doesn't matter! It's what they live by!"

He looked down, his confidence slowly washing from his face, then faced her again.

"Maybe. Maybe you're right. But it's too late now."

"What do you mean?!" She yelled, confused "You're not making any sense!"

"You've seen the news right?"

"W-w-what?" she yelled, shaking her head "Of course I have! What does that have to…?"

"I'm…s…s…s-sorry…" murmured the boy through his bruised lips.

"Look at that" he chuckled "he even owns up to it."


	7. Chapter 7: Just a suggestion

Hey Guys. Sorry about the wait. I updated Chapter 6. I made some of the dialogue make more sense in relation to the characters' personalities. I also figured out why there are so many Italian readers. You would think a story with the words "Testament" and "Isaac" in the name would garner an audience from a predominantly Catholic country, wouldn't you? I hope no one sues me for false advertising. Just to reassure, this is not a bible story.

Please favourite, review, follow and most importantly enjoy!

 **Chapter 7: Just a suggestion**

The dim red light beamed through the tall window and onto his tired face, as his head rested on the bench top. He could see the glow through his thin eyelids. It was distressing enough to wake him.

"Is there even a sun in hell?" he thought.

He pulled himself up, leaning over the worktable, gaining his bearings and rubbing the sleep from his eyes with the heel of his left palm.

"Not these damn dreams again." He murmured. "Can't…forget"

He looked at his other hand to find that he was still holding his revolver. He closed the cylinder, placed the weapon in its holster then strapped the gun belt around his waist as he stood back up.

"Mr Isaac!" a voice called from behind the door, followed by three knocks, "You are needed!"

Isaac opened the door to find that Pain was the one making the racket.

"Ugh! My head…" he said as he rubbed his forehead "What…what's going on?"

"If you will follow me Mr Isaac." Pain replied "I will lead you to the briefing room."

Isaac followed Pain down the corridor to the left as he left his room, closing the door behind himself.

"Uhh, would you perhaps like a bath first Master Isaac?"

"No, I'm fine thanks."

"As you wish." Pain said fanning the smell from his face.

"Any idea what my mission is?"

"Very little Master Isaac. As far as I know, it has something to do with re-establishing communications with a watch outpost, a few kilometres out"

"There are outposts out there?" He asked laughingly "in that desolate, rocky wasteland?"

"We have many! Far away, all along the perimeter of the caste. Precautions to protect the Masters."

"The Reapers are your Masters?"

"Oh yes! I live to serve the Masters! I would gladly die for them if need be."

"Well, that makes one of us."

They reached the door with the words 'Briefing Room' written on it in raised letters. Pain held the door open for Isaac as he entered. The room was wide and quiet. All the walls were covered in pin boards and white boards, all with something written or pinned onto it. To what the information on the boards regarded he didn't know. He assumed it had something to do with the war, but it wasn't within his immediate interest. In the centre of the room was a large, square table with no chairs around it. Mandy and Grim stood on the opposite side of the table, conversing and looking at photos of what looked like a well-established military grade camp or outpost.

"…you smell like ass." Mandy greeted.

"Morning" greeted Grim.

Isaac grunted in response and leaned onto the table, scanning over the contents on the tabletop.

"So what am I getting into? Something to do with communications?"

"Basically" she replied, "twice a day we receive reports from the twelve watch outposts we built three kilometres out around the castle's perimeter. One report at noon, one at night."

"Dis outpost…" Grim added, sliding the picture of the base over to Isaac, "…south of deh castle, reported in some strange wildlife activity last night. Deir report was due two hours ago."

"Neither have they replied to any communication attempts. We need you to go there and investigate what's going on."

"Hold on a second" Isaac interrupted, "Did you just say it's two o'clock?"

"…you didn't JUST wake up did you?" Mandy replied.

"Uhh, I didn't say that. Okay so, has this sort of thing happened before?" Isaac asked, examining the photo.

"We built these very recently, ever since we had an intrusion a few months back. So no, this hasn't happened before."

"We presume dis is some sort of scare tactic."

"So you think this might be HIM's doing?"

"Confident, but not certain." She replied "We're wasting enough time as it is. Here's a radio" she handed him a slim but sturdy long distance radio communication device "contact us when u get there. We have a helo on the landing pad outside. Pain will escort…"

"Nah, I can get there myself." He interrupted.

Mandy paused, rolled her eyes and massaged her brow before saying, "No Isaac, we need you there NOW. You can't just 'walk' there. There aren't any roads!"

"I didn't say anything about walking."

Isaac turned then made his way out the door. As he left the room as Mandy and Grim looked at each other curiously, then followed him to the yard. Outside, Isaac walked out into a space where there was nothing and no one within a five meter radius of himself.

"Oh yeah." Isaac muttered before facing the Reapers, "I suppose I need your permission?"

Grim outstretched his forearm and said "you have our permission to leave deh castle."

"Under the condition that you return, ASAP. Once your mission is complete, that is." Mandy clarified.

He sighed, then nodded in their direction, before reaching over to the rolled up, right sleeve of his trench coat and pressed the button on the sleeve strap twice. Almost immediately, two metal appendages extended from his sleeves, travelling the underside of his arms until they reached his wrists. As they stopped, a handle flipped out from both the appendages and slotted into his palms. He flipped open the covers on the top of the handles, revealing big red buttons, and activating some sort of thin metal frame that travelled through the seams of the coat's stitching, stiffening the coat's previously malleable material.

He planted his feet and pressed down hard on the buttons, activating two concealed rockets under his coat, launching him into the sky effortlessly. As he flew higher and higher, he corrected his course and flew to the south.

"Now where did he get something like that?" Mandy thought aloud.

"A lot of nifty toys lying around after Megaville" Grim replied "though, it does look familiar now dat I'm seeing it in action. 'Squirrel'. Dat word comes to mind."

Mandy looked at Grim, perplexed.

"Squirrel?" she asked "and rocket powered trench coat?"

"It isn't a crime to tink aloud m'dear."

"I'm no hypocrite" she replied "Let's get to the communications room. He'll be there shortly."

Isaac glided through the smoky air and punctured the ash clouds that filled the skies of the underworld. He struggled to breathe and at points had to fly close to the ground, sparing himself from the unbreathable atmosphere, risking being clipped by the protruding, hazardous rock that was scattered across the hellish wastes. He believed that hell was some sort of holding room for all the terrible and inexplicable otherworldly dangers and beasts that were hidden from the mortal realm. Like God's own portfolio of mistakes, and all who dared to defy the lord or spend their life in sin would be sent there, to spend eternity locked in the same room with those things. From his current point of view however, it looked like a massive, desolate wasteland, like a meteorite, earthquake, tornado, and a volcano laid waste to one place all at once. He thought, perhaps, that sinners that go here aren't made to suffer at all, instead the damned are extradited from paradise to this dead place.

Or maybe he was just overthinking things. This is just one part of hell. Maybe the worst over the horizon somewhere.

As the rock and dead trees began to clear, and the outpost became visible through the foggy landscape. About a kilometre out, he reduced the propulsion of the rockets by angling his wrists and pivoting his legs downward. As he got closer and closer to the ground, he slowed more and more, readying his feet to make contact with it. The outpost was just ahead, and he was nearing the ground. He planted his boots onto it, scraping across the dirt and gradually slowing down. The rockets had deactivated, the appendages had receded back into the coat, and the metal frame with it. He skidded for a few more seconds before losing his grip, falling forward and tumbling a few feet. His body slid across the surface for a second before he finally stopped.

"Argh!" he muttered as he pulled himself up slowly. "…at least the take-off looked cool."

The area was heavily fortified. Scattered across the site were sandbags, tents, stone watch towers, even some large rocks chipped away and even detonated to make some more space. The site seemed like it was pretty lively, that is before everyone vanished. Isaac found no one there, and it seemed as if everyone had just stopped what they were doing and left. As Isaac investigated further, he found some signs of struggle. Torn tents, flipped vehicles, some destroyed ones as well, and bones and armour from the royal soldiers scattered about.

Isaac pulled out his radio and reported in.

"Hello?"

"Yes, we hear you Isaac." Mandy replied.

"I'm here, no one else is though. Clearly something went down."

"Wait, they're gone?!"

"Not a soul. No offence Grim"

"Ergh" Grim mumbled.

CRUNCH!

"Hold on…", he paused.

CRUNCH!

"I hear something. I'm gonna check it out."

Isaac put the radio away then made his way towards the noise. As he got closer, the noise got louder and louder, so loud that whatever was making it had to be pretty big. He moved around the tent that concealed it, to find that the noise was the crunching of bones in the maw of a Chimera.

"Shit" Isaac whispered, "I've heard these are a bitch to kill."

The beast was tall, about four meters high. The red light shimmered off its thick bronze mane and coat, and lightly reflected of its scaly hind legs, rear end and whip like tail. Its sharp teeth and long fangs pulverised the bones in its wide mouth at the end of its snout. It had two long horns protruding from the back of its head that ended in gradual curves. It stood on its hoofed hind legs as it shovelled handfuls of bone into its mouth with its paws bearing razor sharp claws. Its four soulless eyes scanned the environment as it chewed.

Isaac had heard about the Chimera's thick hide and impenetrable scales, and was surprised by its muscular upper body. He concluded that bullets would bounce right off it, and that the sword would be the better option, but where to strike? The legs are a lost cause, the upper body was covered in tough muscle, so the neck had to be the spot. He snuck around the beast, making sure he wasn't within its field of view, then crept closer and closer. When he was close enough, he pounced onto its hunched over back.

It snarled as it looked over its shoulder, trying to see what had grabbed onto it.

"Woah!" Isaac shouted as the beast attempted to shake him off.

He grabbed onto its mane to balance himself, before he slashed the right side of its neck, making only a shallow gash into the muscle. It roared in pain, before reaching over its back, grabbing Isaac's arm and tossing him 15 meters away. He planted his feet into the dirt, keeping himself from tumbling as he skidded across.

"The nape's too tough" he thought, "What spot has no muscle…"

The beast was already charging in his direction, pounding its knuckles into the ground as it galloped towards him.

"…and no bone?"

It was closing in, he needed to think quickly.

"…THE THROAT!" he shouted, before dodging the beast's slashing claw.

He blocked every blow from the beast's flurry of attacks with his sword. Sparks flew as the claws and steel collided. The beast panted in a ravenous and wild fashion, as if it had an instinctual need to eviscerate him, like all it knew what to do in that moment was to kill, and nothing else. Isaac noticed the blows were getting faster and heavier. He couldn't keep this up, he needed to strike. As soon as he was able to, Isaac swiped at the beast's neck, missing as it dodged. He continued, mixing a combination of jabs and swipes, hoping to slice or penetrate its throat. Though all efforts failed, thanks to the beast's surprisingly good dodging ability, and its thick mane concealing its throat.

An idea came into his mind, "Maybe…" he thought before he pulled out his bottle of lighter fluid, something he often used when burning remains, or occasionally having some fun.

Isaac made some distance from the beast before hurling the tin bottle of fluid at it. As he predicted, it sliced it in half with its talons, covering its face in fluid. As it continued to charge him, Isaac blocked the next attack in a way that the sparks from the parry deflected into its face, lighting the fluid. Its face burst into flames, before it recoiled and roared in agony. It clawed at the ground, digging up dirt to bury its face in, to no avail. The fluid continued to burn, also burning the mane away. He could finally see its charred throat, so he positioned his sword, leapt forward and swiped through the beast's neck, nearly cutting its head off. It ceased it's screaming and slumped over onto the ground, its head still burning.

"That was a bit..." he panted, "…complicated".

He noticed something else about the carcase now that the mane was burned away, a metal collar. It was too large and flashy to be a regular collar, it had some sort of utility. Perhaps a shock collar he thought. This thing being here was clearly intentional.

He pulled out the radio and reported in.

"Mandy?"

"We're here. What was the disturbance?"

"A Chimera. It wiped out everybody, but I killed it."

"You killed…a Chimera. A fucking Chimera."

"Yep"

"O-okay…"

"Someone clearly brought it here. Hence the big ass collar on its neck."

"Interesting, but that doesn't explain why they didn't report in."

"That's what I was thinking. I'll check out the radio tent."

"Uh yes, good idea."

He then put the radio way.

"He seems to know his shit." commented Mandy.

"You'd be surprised." replied Grim.

Isaac went over to the tent with the radio dishes and antenna protruding from and surrounding it, which was left mostly unharmed. Inside he found two staff dead, skulls crushed like walnuts.

The equipment was severely damaged as well. One of the fallen staff had his dagger drawn, and he clearly got a hit in. He picked up the blade and inspected it.

"…necroplasm. Poor fucks didn't have ghost of a chance. No coms, an unstoppable beast running rampant. Convoluted plan, heh! Fucking worked though." He pulled out his radio, "Mandy"

"Status?"

"Radio's sabotaged. Staff are dead. Necroplasm on one of their knives. Clearly all plotted."

"Any suspects?"

"I don't know, someone with access to rare exotic mythical beasts and professional assassins maybe?"

"Hmm, I might have an idea about who. Come on back."

"Some advice…"

"Hmm?"

"Your guys need better weaponry. My suggestion? Flamethrowers. Lots of Flamethrowers."


	8. Chapter 8: Forgot about that

Hey everyone. Sorry for the wait. I wanted to thank everyone who favorited the story. You motivate me to keep making these. Also if you find any plot holes, or mistakes that don't match up with the lore from the comics, please let me know in reviews or DMs. This is a learning experience for me as much as a passion.

Please review, favourite, follow and enjoy.

 **Chapter 8: Forgot about that**

The communications room wasn't lit very well, but the numerous screens, the blinking lights that emanated from the consoles and chatter by the staff, livened up the place. Mandy sat at one of these consoles, as she was about to end her conversation with Isaac after he completed his mission.

"Good idea Isaac." she said, grinding here teeth slightly, "I'll put that into consideration."

He replied with "No problem. I'll be back soon." then hung up.

Mandy ended the call, got up out of her chair at the communications console and preceded to leave the room. She was stopped however by Grim's confused glare.

"What?" she asked.

"Dat was very unlike you."

"Don't you think it's a good idea?"

"On deh contrary, me tink it's an awesome idea. It's just I expected you to say someting along deh lines of 'Listen here you little shit! I pay you to do as I say, not make requests!', or someting."

"Well, you would be right." She replied, making her way to the door, "Come, let's congratulate our new operative on his first successful mission."

Grim, still perplexed by her attitude, said "I never t'ought I'd say dis but, you're beginning to scare me."

At the highest point of the Land of Tainted Souls, lies the castle belonging to the all-powerful and cruellest underlord of all the 7 realms, HIM. At this particular time, he was enjoying a nice warm bath.

"Ah! There's nothing more relaxing than this! The best part? The serenity."

It remained silent, to his liking, for the next few seconds, until the commander intruded of course.

"My Lord. May I ask a…OH MY GOD!"

"FUCKING HELL! You scared the shit outa me!"

"I…I'm sorry my Lord, I'll come back later."

"No Commander. You've already ruined the silence, you might as well ask me what you came here for."

"O…kay. It concerns the men you've supplied for the army."

"What of them?"

"You see, more and more soldiers are coming in and as a result, grow more and more unpredictable, and to some extent, problematic."

"And by that, you mean harder to train."

"Yes, perhaps we could get some different soldiers, ones that are more disciplined."

"Well, commander, that sounds like YOUR problem!"

"Uhh, come again?"

"All the soldiers I've supplied are all of the greatest warriors and war criminals that the world has ever seen! Throughout history! Who I then mutated with necroplasm! It's your job to adapt! It's your job to work with what you have! Deal with it!"

"I…I understand my Lord, but with my modern training style, vehicle and fire-arm based formation tactics, I don't think…"

"Are you saying you're not cut out for the job, Commander?"

"N-No that's not what I…"

He rose out of the bath tub, asserting his dominance, while also exposing himself.

"Because I specifically remember when I was crushing thirty story buildings under my heel, you tried to stop me with your army. You failed, BUT you didn't do a terrible job. You also surrendered your allegiance to me, throwing all your men and government under the bus doing so, but still, not terrible. So when someone surrenders their very soul to me, I expect them to complete the tasks I set out for them!"

"Y…Yes my…"

"AM I CLEAR?!"

"YES MY LORD!"

"Good." He said as he receded back into his warm bath.

The commander turned and made his way out, but before he could leave, HIM spoke to him once more.

"I forget you are just a feeble human commander. Perhaps you need a rest! How do you humans put it? Count some SHEEP? HA!"

"How the hell did he know that?" he said under his breath as he left the room.

Grim and Mandy stood outside and watched as Isaac descended from the sky, sticking the landing this time.

"Good job. I've already sent a new team to refortify the checkpoint."

"Cool." Isaac replied before tossing her a burnt and oversized collar. "This was on the Chimera. For you to analyse or…something."

He attempted to move around her, but she stopped him, grabbing him by the shoulder.

"I wanted to clear the air." She said.

"Hmm?"

"I apologize for my outburst last night. Usually when I see a risk, no matter how small, I eliminate it before it can do me and my family any harm. When you came around, well, let's say I wasn't in an opportunistic mood."

"Hmm." He paused, "Mandy, I'm here for one thing, and one thing only. HIM's head on a goddamn pike. If that means I have to sign my soul away for a few months, and get paid for it, then I'm willing to do it. Not here for any drama."

"Glad to hear we're on the same page." She replied.

Grim, looking pretty confused at that point, then interjected with "We had some food prepared while you were gone. Why don't you make your way inside Isaac?"

"I would but the smell of burning chimera face is stuck in my nose. Killed my appetite." He said before making his way inside.

Mandy began to do the same, before Grim stood in her path.

"What are ya up to?" Grim questioned.

"Isn't it obvious?"

"No. You're not evan dat nice when you're tryin teh get in dier pants."

"He's a demi-god, Grim. And we have him under a cursed contract. He can't hurt us even if he wanted to."

"You're point?"

"If he knew the things we've done."

"YOU'VE done" Grim reminded.

"…then that would affect his work ability, and his malice would boil up in him like a pressure cooker bomb. And we both know once Kære is dead, he's out, and there's no telling what he'll do. We might have second war on our hands for all we know. One we probably won't win."

"Hmm" he said, rubbing his bony chin, "You bring up a good point. It might be better to keep your past on deh down low."

Isaac entered the building and began to walk to his room, passing the kitchen. A few feet away from the kitchen door, he heard it swing open, followed by the squeaking of sneakers on the stone paved floor. He could also smell the delightful scent of chocolate chip muffins, and hear the rattling of bony fingers on a cooking tray. It was clear that it was Junior following behind him. He would have just ignored the boy and continued on his way, but incidentally he had forgotten where his room was. If there was one thing Isaac hated more than HIM, it was being lost.

Instead of looking around to find his room, he skewed off to the left a little bit before stopping altogether. He expected Junior to continue walking and overtake him, but instead he also stopped.

"Ah, for fuck sakes" he thought.

He listened over his shoulder, trying to understand what the boy was doing. He heard him whisper to himself, things like "What's he doing?" and "What do we do?". Eventually, after a few seconds, he heard him whisper "Fine! I'll move!". As Junior was about to overtake him, Isaac began to move again, walking alongside Junior.

"Oh shit!" the tentacle shouted, "He's gonna kill us!"

"No I'm not." Isaac replied.

Junior looked up at him, flabbergasted, under the impression that Isaac had just heard and understood what his tentacle had just said.

"My contract prevents me from harming you and your family."

"Uhh..."

"And yes, I speak Demon. I've hunted them most of my life, it becomes a good tool."

Junior was shocked by his bluntness.

"'You' hunted demons?" he asked laughingly.

"Yeah, and killed them too. Sometimes I burned them, beheaded them, and even flayed them alive."

"Woh! Okay. Only the bad ones I hope."

"You're implying there are good ones?"

"Yeah actually. I do know a few good ones."

"There's one thing I know kid, and it's that demons never have good intentions. The reason why you think these demons are good, is probably because that's what they want you to think."

"Oh really?" he said sarcastically.

"You're sister for example. You think she gave you her eye because she had to? Or maybe, to plant a seed for something sinister?"

Junior looked at back at him, shocked. Not only was he offended by what Isaac said, but also that he could tell that Mini gave Jr her eye, granting him her demon abilities.

"Hey asshole!" Junior's tentacle called out, "Junior's my bro! I would never betray him!"

"To your knowledge?" he replied.

"Okay. That's it!" Junior interrupted, "You know, you've been here half a day and you think you have us all figured out, but you don't! You don't know me, my tentacle, or my sister! In this case, your 'experience' has no weight!"

Isaac sighed, "Don't take it to heart, kid. I'm just sayin', I get a bad feeling around your sister. A strangely familiar one at that."

Junior paused, slightly intrigued, then asked "What kind of bad feeling?"

Isaac looked at Junior, visibly serious "Like an 'apocalyptic evil' kind of feeling."

"Looks like we finally agree on something." said the tentacle.

"You seem like a good kid Junior. Even if you are a…Grim Reaper. Trust me when I say this. Be wary of your sister. She has 'anti-christ' written all over her."

As they came up to Junior's room, Junior approached the door and his tentacle opened it for him.

"Alright, uhh…good talk?" Junior said.

"Hmm" Isaac replied.

"...bye" Junior said, about to enter his room, until Grim appeared behind them.

"Makin' friends already, are we?" Grim asked from the shadows.

"JESUS!" Isaac and Jr shouted in fright

"We're…just making conversation Grim." Isaac replied.

Grim frowned and raised his eye brow, or the skull equivalent of one, "…you're lost aren't you?"

"I swear it was around a corner or something!"

Jr smirked at Isaac's confession, just before Isaac gave him a nasty look. Jr stopped smirking after that.

"It's just down dere to deh left." Grim said, pointing down the corridor.

Isaac sighed, "Thanks".

"I'll meet you dere. We must talk."

"Okay? See you shortly." Isaac said, making his way down the hall.

Grim waited silently for Isaac to leave listening distance, then went to tell Jr what his concern was.

"Jr, about your friend."

"I know." Jr replied, "I wasn't planning on letting him know about her either."

"Well technically, he already does, tanks to Mandy's comment yesterday."

"So what do you want me to do about it?"

"Just make sure he doesn't come in contact wit her. Her affiliation wit HIM will most definitely be a death sentence for her."

"No problem. Thanks dad."

"You're Welcome. Good night." Grim said, leaving towards Isaac's room.

Jr entered his room, then locked the door and placed the tray of treats on the ground.

"Mimi!" he called out, "Dinner!"

Immediately, a pink and black blur scurried out from under his bed and attacked the tray, devouring its contents with monstrous ferocity. The blur was actually a little girl with long black hair, wearing a pink dress. Tragically, she only had two bandaged stumps where her hands used to be. This behaviour didn't faze Junior, as this was just a normal six o'clock for him.

"So Mimi, there's something you need to know."

Mimi's attention still stuck to her meal despite Junior's words.

"There's a new guy living in the castle."

Her gaping, crumb filled maw froze in place as her eyes drew to Junior's direction, quietly waiting for him to finish.

"Okay good! You're listening! So, this guy is a bit of an asshole, and I think it would be for the best if you at least 'tried' to stay put, and not leave the room while he's here."

Her left eyebrow raised, indicating she was still lacking information in an area, an area that she couldn't verbalise to him, so he had to guess.

"Uhh, he's some kind of Van Helsing type? He might not like you for your "history" with HIM and that sort. He may be here for a few months."

She gave him a little nod, then immediately began to devour the muffin tray once more.

"Anyway, I'll just make sure to lock all the doors and windows from now on."

"Not that she can open them! Ha!" commented the tentacle.

"Shut up! That's not nice!"

"Dude, she literally bites me on a regular basis. I think I'm entitled to throw some shade." It replied.

Grim walked up to Isaac's door and knocked, and very shortly afterward Isaac opened it.

"You tink you'll have a better time finding it now?" Grim asked Isaac.

"I think so. What's going on?"

Grim pushed past him to enter the room.

"Okay. Privately then." Isaac commented, closing the door.

Grim was about to say something, then cautiously checked behind the mirror, then the dresser, then under the work bench.

Noticing this, Isaac said "Don't worry. I just checked for bugs."

"Good" Grim replied, "Because it's about Mandy. She isn't who she's making herself out to be."

"How so?"

"Deh reason why I married her Isaac, is because she is deh most evil, most vile, most despicable, most wretched woman I have ever known in the thousands of years of my rule."

"Okay Grim, I don't really need to know about your kinks."

"What? No! What I mean is, if she's playing nice, it's because she has someting horrible in mind. Remember dat."

"Hmm. How evil are we talking here?"

"If I told you, you would leave dis room and try to kill her right where she stands, so I'm not gwan into any specifics."

"Well now you're getting me all curious." Isaac said enthusiastically, "Are you sure telling me about this was a good idea?"

"Yes, because I'm telling you where I stand." He said as he tightened his grip on his scythe, "I respect you for deh tings you've been t'rough, but I will not sacrifice me family for your 'crusade'. If you even tink aboot harming me family, I'll end you like dat." snapping his fingers.

"So why did you let me write the wrong name?"

"Because if I she knew dat was deh wrong name, on top of deh whole 'demi-god' ting, she would have pulled deh trigger."

Isaac scratched his fuzzy chin, then asked "So, you saved my life then?"

"No." He replied, "I saved her life."

"Hmm. You're not wrong."

"I believe you're deh key to victory Isaac, but I had a plan. You screwed dat up by writing dat name. I had to improvise. Now I suggest dat you follow deh rules to deh dot, or we're all going to pay deh price."

"You're afraid of her?"

"No, I'm afraid of not winning dis war. Dis could be what dictates our odds."

"Alright. I'll play along. On another note…" Isaac then asked "How am I getting paid?"

"We'll give you dis week's pay on Friday, but here's some on me." He said, handing Isaac a few fifties in underworld currency.

Isaac grabbed the cash and looked at it. It was glossy and purple, bearing the face of what looked like Cthulu in the middle of the note.

Confused, Isaac asked "What the hell am I supposed to do with this?"

"Deh exchange rate is about deh same." Grim replied, "I'll see you." then made his way to the door.

"Yep. See ya round."

As Grim closed the door behind him, Isaac thought to himself "Hmm, was I doing something?"

After Grim confronted her, Mandy felt that she needed to change into something less worn, that didn't stink of hard-drive ventilation and desk chair that had seeped into her dress, thanks to the couple hours spent in the communications room. Since the night had fallen, she was about to remove her dress to jump into her pink felt night gown. As she plucked it from her wardrobe, she finally noticed the faint sound of wind passing through the open window, one that she didn't remember opening. She already began to reach for the pistol she stashed in the wardrobe, but the thin wrinkly and rotted fingers had already clasped over her mouth, muffling her call for help. A second hand came into her view, its fingers shifting into razor sharp claws. It slowly came closer to her neck, certainly to open her throat and spill her blood all over the carpet. She desperately tried to reach for the gun, but he held her back too far, holding her up off the ground.

She was almost sure she was about to finally meet her end, until the door slammed open, followed by a quick gunshot, blowing the assassin's head right off. Her feet dropped to the ground, with the assailant's arms still tight around her. She pried the stiff and rotting arms off of her, allowing the corpse to fall to the ground dead.

After he saved Mandy from the undead hitman, Isaac said "Sorry. I forgot about the 'assassin on the loose' part."


	9. Chapter 9: You'll see

Hey Guys. I'm really sorry about the long wait. Shit in your life, plus writer's block, and lack of motivation can really do a number on you. I just want to let you know that I do sometimes update previous chapters with better dialogue or maybe I remove things that I feel shouldn't be established at that point in the story. So I recommend that whenever I upload a new chapter, please go back and read the previous chapters, or at least read the ones I've changed. Them being chapters 1, 2, 3, 6 and 8.

Please leave a review or a favourite. Thank you for reading.

 **Chapter 9: You'll see**

The adrenaline in the room started to die down, as the undead corpse of the mutated assassin laid in a pool of necroplasm on Mandy's bedroom floor.

Isaac holstered his pistol then said "I would come in and close the window, but you haven't invited me in."

Mandy walked over to the open window and shut it, before replying with "No need."

"Isaac!" shouted Grim as he ran in through the doorway, followed by Pain, pushing passed Isaac. "What have you…? …oh." Noticing the corpse.

"You didn't think Isaac tried to kill me, did you now Grim?"

"Of course not. Dat is…impossible."

"Hmm" Mandy replied, "Well this 'zombie looking' prick tried to take my head off. I would have been dead had Isaac not popped his top"

"Tank you Isaac." Grim said, "Come in".

"You're welcome" he replied before entering the room, "Does this armour look familiar to you two?" pointing at the corpse's attire.

Mandy crouched by the corpse and examined it.

"Definitely Kære's"

"Who's Kære?" Isaac asked.

Mandy looked surprised for a second, looking up at Grim in response.

"Uhh, dat's HIM's real name."

Isaac looked at them both, before asking "Kære? That's his notorious 'true name'?"

"Never phased me." Mandy admitted.

Mandy turned the head over, revealing the devastated flesh, allowing one of the eyes to fall out. One was clearly a different colour to the other.

"What do you make of this?" she asked, "If they have Nergal to pass on their power, why don't they just use the Nergal?"

"Nergal." Isaac repeated, "That's an ancient word."

"You prefer demon?" Grim asked.

"Potato Potahto. Now, when I was back on earth, the last hit I did was on this facility. They kidnapped humans, cut out an eye, and then plucked another from this demon, which was just covered in the things. They took the eye, popped it in the victim, bing bang boom, homemade hybrid."

"What's the point of that?"

"Perhaps it's meant for taking over deh host's body while retaining deir memories and knowledge. Like a sort of 'hijacking'." Grim presumed.

"That sounds concerning." Mandy admitted, "We should probably get a research team on that."

"Hold on a second." Said Grim, "I remember dis man, reaped him hundreds of years ago."

"You can recognise that mess?" Isaac asked, pointing at pealing and dangling flesh on its face.

"Somewhat. He was interrogated to death by men seeking information on his employer. He was a prolific assassin. He should be burning in deh fires of hell for his misdeeds."

"So why is he going around, all demoned up?" Isaac asked.

"Because Kære is in charge of the land of tainted souls." Answered Mandy, "Where the dead go to pay for their sins. He must be recruiting famous warriors to fight for him."

"That doesn't explain the Chimera." Isaac added.

"Actually, I just got word from our analysts on dat collar." Grim informed, "It was used to domesticate deh beast. Control it. And deh only place it could have come from would be deh Nightosphere."

"So Abadeer must be on Kære's side now." Mandy assumed.

Isaac was about to ask who that was as well, but Grim answered ahead of him.

"He's deh oldest and most insane demon lord ever."

"Oooof course he is." He responded sarcastically.

"Okay" she announced, "I think I've got a game plan. PAIN!"

"Yes Milady!" Pain shouted.

"Clean this shit up, and box up the corpse."

"Of course Milady!"

"No!" Grim commanded.

"No, what?" she replied.

"You are not mailing it back, Mandy." Grim instructed.

"Didn't ask for your opinion bonehead." She replied, following the guards as they dragged it out of the room.

Isaac snickered, then asked "Bonehead?"

"If you call me dat, I'll mail 'you' back."

"Heh! Sure. I'm going back to bed. Wake me up when…actually. Don't."

Isaac left the room, bumping into Jr and Minnie who came out to see what the commotion was.

"We heard shots!" Jr said.

"What has't thee done?!" Minnie demanded.

"Just saved your mother from being assassinated. You're welcome." He replied as he walked passed them, not making a big deal out of it.

The two looked at each other, frowned, and then went back to their rooms.

Isaac took a shower then snacked on a breakfast bar that he found in his coat. Not concerned about how long is was in there. Finally, he took a nap in that big, beautiful bed he hadn't used yet.

"Good dreams this time." He said to himself.

Despite his hopes, he again found himself in that room, with that man and woman.

"No. He…he couldn't have." She replied.

"I found him unconscious, right in the epicentre, unscathed, and the only survivor! You want evidence?" he grabbed the boy's right arm and held it up, then shouted "Look!"

His arm looked completely normal, except that his hand was a brighter tone compared to the rest of the arm.

"How do you think he grew that back?!" he shouted.

"That's impossible…" she murmured.

"I didn't want to." the boy sobbed, "I…I don't remember."

"SHUT UP!" he shouted, jabbing the boy's head with the muzzle of his pistol.

"Stop it!" she yelled, "You're scaring him!"

"Yeah! I am aren't I! How does it feel?" He asked the boy, "To be the ant, and not the boot?!"

"What do you want from him?!" she yelled.

"For his kind to see that they don't scare us! That we're not at their mercy!"

"Please!" she begged, "Don't do it!"

"I've hunted monsters for as long as I can remember! Then that bitch planted one right under my nose! Who's responsible for the lives he takes?! Whose shoulders does that fall on?!" he asked before cocking the hammer to the pistol, "If I don't do this, it's on me!"

"DON'T!" she shouted.

He placed his finger on the trigger, ready to pull. His breathing accelerated as he gritted his teeth. He's ready to do it, but the trigger becomes heavy, and he can't. The boy sat there, looking straight down, tears falling to the concrete floor, ready to die, but still, he can't do it. For a second, he looked at the boy not as an enemy, or as monster, but as a son. There's no way he could do it. How could he? But in a brief spike of adrenaline, with the thought that the boy could never come back from this, and with tear in his eye, he said,

"I'm sorry boy." raised the pistol again, and without thinking, he pulled the trigger.

Despite his efforts, his finger was too slow. She had already dashed across the room, disarmed him, and clocked him over the head, knocking him out instantly. As he fell to the floor, she unloaded then crushed the pistol in her hand, wrapped her arms around the boy, rubbed his back, then told him,

"It's okay. You're okay. You're alive. You're safe."

"Why…why…" the boy whimpered.

"It wasn't your fault." She told him, "It wasn't you."

"Why…did you stop him?"

Isaac's eyes flung open. His body was still, and calm. He wasn't sad, or angry, just disappointed. Checking the time, he found that the next day had come. It was early this time, and he smelled something amazing coming from outside his room. So he got dressed, made his way to the dining area, and behold, a table covered in remarkable food.

"Uhuhugh fuck yeah." He mumbled.

"Master Isaac!" greeted Pain from behind Isaac.

"SHIT!" he shouted in fright as he turned to around.

"Apologies Master Isaac, breakfast is ready!"

"I'm not BLIND Pain."

"I…said I was sorry."

"No it's….fuck, never mind. Sorry. I'm gonna pig out. Don't watch."

"Oh! Well, of course. Enjoy!"

Mandy and Grim came to the table I little later, finding Isaac had eaten about a third of its contents.

"Seems like dat apatite has come back." Grim assumed

"You gonna leave some for us?" asked Mandy.

"Leave me alone *burps*, I'm depressed."

"Yeah?" Mandy responded, "Well go be sad in the briefing room, and wait until we're done eating."

He got up and made his way there, not before saying "You know you haven't truly lived until you've eaten a mouldy hotdog out of a trash can. Just sayin"

Later, in the briefing room, Mandy and Grim came in to find Isaac and his bloated stomach lying across the centre table.

"Off!" she commanded.

"Shit. Sorry." He responded, hopping off the table.

"Isaac" Grim said, "We need your head in deh game today."

"Sorry. What's the mission?"

"We believe that the demon lord of the Nightosphere, Hunson Abadeer may be working with Kære, but we need to be sure. You're going to infiltrate his castle and find out if he is. If he is, kill him." Mandy briefed.

"I don't tink we should have him killed straight up, Mandy." Grim interjected, "I tink we should convince him to work for us instead, or at least just stop him from backing Kære. If he refuses, den we should consider assassination."

"What? No way am I letting Abadeer warm the bench while we're all killing each other. He's either with us or against us."

"Fine." Grim replied, "How about we offer Hunson our allegiance, if he refuses, he dies. Better?"

"Better. He could be a valuable asset, considering his power over the Nightosphere and those within it"

"Okay." Isaac interjected, "So I go in and try to convince this guy to join us, or I kill him. Easy."

"No, not easy." Mandy replied, "Abadeer is unkillable. Unless you first take off his amulet. That gives him his power, and his rule over the Nightosphere. Only then could you finish him off with that sword of yours."

Isaac drew his butterfly sword and flipped it open, before asking "You know what this thing can do?"

"I don't care what tricks it can do, Isaac. All I care about is whether you can use it."

"Oh, I can." He replied.

"And if you do end up killing Abadeer, bring me his amulet."

"Bring US deh amulet."

"Yeah, whatever."

"And give you rule over a whole realm and all the beasts in the underworld?" Isaac asked.

"Exactly" Mandy replied, "You've got a problem with that?"

Isaac sighed, then said "No, I don't."

"Good. Now, about getting there."

"Right." Grim added "You can't just fly dere. It is in a very deep place hell."

"So, how do I get there?"

"We need to summon a portal for you to get in, and you'll have to summon anudder to get out."

"Oh this isn't going to involve shit like virgin blood or something, is it?"

"No" Grim replied, "It is actually quite tame, albeit a bit odd."

"Okay!" Mandy interrupted, "Now that we're all filled in, your mission begins now."

Mandy walked over to a tarp on the wall, then pulled it down, revealing a smiley face drawn on the wall. Grim then pulled out a carton of milk from his cloak and walked up to the smiley face.

"What the hell is this?" Isaac inquired.

"Just go with it." Mandy replied.

"After we open deh portal, it will take you to a random place in the Nightosphere. Den you will have to find his pyramid castle."

"That place is filled with all kinds of monsters." Mandy warned.

"Beasts dat you may have seen, known of, or not known of at all. Multiplied tenfold." Grim added, "So be carefol."

"Feels like a lot of pressure is on this." Isaac commented.

"You don't know the half of it." Mandy replied.

"Lastly, you won't be able to contact us via radio either. So you're on your own." Grim informed.

"Well, let's not think about it too hard." Isaac said, "Let's get this over with."

Grim nodded, before opening the carton, dousing the smiley face in it and chanting "Maloso vobiscum et cum spiritum!"

A portal quickly opened on the wall, revealing a hellish landscape within. Screams and indescribable sounds echoed from it.

"This is the weirdest fuckin thing I've ever done." Isaac commented.

"In you go." Mandy said, gesturing Isaac to enter the portal.

He sighed, before saying "This was a mistake." Then sprinted at the portal and leaped through.

Immediately, Isaac began to fall. The portal had opened on a Cliffside, a very high one. He panicked for a second, until he remembered his rocket jets. Quickly he drew his stabilizer handles and blasted off into the unknown. As he soared over the land, he managed to pick out a few beasts he knew, like the chimera, Lycans, flocks of harpies and things that could only be described as lovecraftian and inconceivably strange. Suddenly, he heard a humming sound approaching from behind, or like a bellow. Looking behind himself, he found he was being pursued by a leviathan. A serpentine beast that could fly, its mouth wide open as it grew closer.

"Nope! Not like this!" Isaac shouted before he drew his heavy machine gun from his coat, and fired at the beast.

They bullets bounced right off of its scales, only making it angrier, and faster. He needed the upper hand. To do that, he had to outsmart it. Quickly, he put away his gun, gained altitude, and then disabled his jets, sending him flying back. Just as he flew over the leviathan's head, he reactivated his jets, drew his sword, and then dove straight for its unprotected neck, slicing half way through. It howled a deathly call as it fell toward the ground. Isaac then continued his mission.

The Nightosphere was a terrifying place. There wasn't a single place as far as the eye could see that wasn't coloured an evil shade of brown or red. Mountainous formations and deep crevices littered the landscape, as well as the numerous beasts, and small creatures unfortunate enough to encounter them. It took a while before Isaac could pick out the tall pyramid structure out of the hundreds of mountains. He headed straight for it, keeping his eye open for an entrance. He noticed numerous port holes at the tip, then landed on it, scanning through each one for Abadeer.

After looking for a while, he found the sky light to the main area of the pyramid. It was well decorated and maintained, featuring rugs on the floor and numerous pictures of who he thought was Abadeer and many strange and historical figures. At the other end of the room, he saw Abadeer, talking on his large video call screen to none other than Kære.

"How is the Chimera herding going, Hunson?" Kære asked.

"Really great! My slaves have located many of their breeding grounds and forced them into captivity. All you have to do is knock one out with tranquilizer gas, and slap on a collar!"

"Excellent work." Kære praised, "My portal is always open for more beasts."

"Good to know! I'll contact you tomorrow!" Abadeer advised before hanging up the call.

Abadeer got out of his desk chair and proceeded to the kitchen, until he heard a faint thump from behind him. He froze, then listened for the faint tip tap of feet on the stone floor. It grew closer and closer, then he quickly turned around before his head transformed into a large bulbous mass of teeth and tentacles, swinging one of them at the intruder.

Isaac was surprised by the sudden transformation and couldn't react fast enough. Abadeer had wrapped his tendril around him, flailing Isaac in the air as he squealed a high pitched screech. Isaac flipped out his sword and severed the tentacle, freeing him, but flinging himself across the room, slamming into the wall.

"Argh!" he grunted, before falling to the floor.

Abadeer squealed louder, as fiery liquid sprayed from his tendril.

"That sword!" he shouted, "GIMME!" then immediately leaped at Isaac, reaching for his weapon.

He swiped at him with his toothy tendrils, trying to slash the sword out of his grasp, but Isaac mixed a combination of dodges and parries that kept Abadeer from striking him.

"WHY AREN'T YOU DYING?!" he shouted, ramping up his efforts.

The faster he got, the further back he pushed Isaac, and was close to cornering him. Isaac grew desperate, this guy wasn't a good fighter, but he took up lots of space, with a wide field of attack, and an unlimited amount of stamina. He needed to outsmart him, and strike at his weakness. As Abadeer pushed him into the corner, Isaac jumped onto the wall and sprung off of it, quickly launching himself over Abadeer's shoulder and snatched the necklace right off of his neck. Abadeer quickly transformed back into his regular form, also losing his suit and tie, in its place a wife beater and jock shorts.

"Dammit!" he shouted, "Give that back!"

Isaac threw the medallion on the ground, striking it with the tip of his sword, not hard enough to break it, then shouted "You've got two choices! You leave Kære and join Grim and Mandy, or I destroy this thing…!" tapping the medallion with the sword, "…then I kill you!"

"No way!" He shouted, "Why would I join that crazy bitch and her lapdog Grim?!"

"Because you'll be alive."

"You'll need a better bargain then that, son!"

"Okay, I'll give you five seconds, or I break this, then you. Five."

"You wouldn't da…"

"Four"

"Do you know what will happen if …"

"Three"

"WAIT!" Abadeer shouted.

Isaac paused his countdown to hear him out.

"Is there a third option?"

Isaac gave him an annoyed look, before saying "Two" then raised the sword, building up for the strike.

"OKAY!" Abadeer shouted, waving his hands in surrender, "I'll play ball!"

Isaac smiled, before flicking up the medallion with his foot and catching it.

"Let me just call Kære first, yeah?"

"Sure" Isaac replied, "But I'll crush this thing if you warn him."

"Don't worry, I believe you." Abadeer said before walking over to the monitor.

He pressed the call button on the dashboard making the little dial animation pop up on the screen. It rang for a bit before Kære's face appeared on screen.

"Hunson?" Kære asked, "What is it?"

"Hi Kære, um…how do I say this?"

"Why are you in your underwear?"

"Ah, you know me! Us bachelors do as we please, right?"

"Wait, are you bleeding?" Kære asked, pointing out the necroplasm on the side of his mouth.

"I….I uhhh….bit my lip."

"What's going on Hunson?" Kære asked, "Who else is there?!"

"No one! I swea…"

Without warning, Isaac speared his sword from the other side of the room through Abadeer's back, and out his chest. The burning necroplasm spurted from the exit wound, and out his mouth.

"HUNSON!" shouted Kære.

Isaac walked up to Abadeer from behind, before he gurgled,

"COUGH! ...Hehe…you're a real kidder! COUGH!"

Isaac ripped the sword from his back before slicing through his neck, beheading him.

"NOOOOO!" Kære shouted.

Isaac turned around to not show his face, before Kære shouted,

"YOU BASTARD! WHO ARE YOU?!"

Isaac looked over his shoulder, before asking "Did you get my message?"

Kære's face changed from pure anger to shock, as he recoiled into his chair.

"You! How did you get into the underworld?!"

"Same way everyone does." Isaac said, "I died a little."

Kære snarled, then asked menacingly "What do you want?!"

Isaac stood there for a second and thought about his answer. Should he reveal his allegiance with Grim and Mandy, or should he leave Kære in the dark, and allow his paranoia to fester?

After thinking it over, Isaac responded with "I'm going to dismantle your whole world, and when you have nothing left, that's when you'll pay."

"Pay?!" Kære asked, "For wha…?"

Isaac quickly slashed the dashboard, destroying the computer and ending the call.

"You'll see."


End file.
